Tata Motors Ltd said on Friday its shareholders have voted to remove Wadia Group chairman Nusli Wadia as an independent director on the automaker’s board.
Almost 71.2% of the shareholders who voted at an extraordinary general meeting of the company held on Thursday favoured Wadia’s removal, Tata Motors said in a stock-exchange filing.
Almost all the votes from promoter group entities including Tata Sons Ltd favoured Wadia’s removal. About 50.06% of the institutional public shareholders and 39.36% of the public shareholders who voted also supported the move, the company said.
The shareholder vote came after Wadia opposed the removal of Cyrus Mistry from Tata Steel and filed a Rs 3,000-crore defamation suit against Tata Sons and its interim chairman Ratan Tata.
The lawsuit followed the notices Wadia had sent to Tata Sons after his removal from the post of director from Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals. Tata Sons had earlier alleged that Wadiawas “galvanizing†other independent directors against the group.
On Wednesday, shareholders of Tata Steel Ltd had voted out Wadia.
Tata Sons had, in October, abruptly ousted Mistry from the chairman’s post. Tata Group has insinuated that Wadia, a long-time friend of Ratan Tata and the Mistry family, is siding with Mistry in the face-off.
Mistry resigned from all listed Tata Group companies, including Tata Steel, on Monday. On Tuesday, he took the battle against Tata Sons and Ratan Tata to the National Company Law Tribunal.
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