Tata Sons Ltd’s shareholders on Monday voted to remove Cyrus Mistry from its board of directors, a widely expected move that completes the ousted chairman’s exit from India’s biggest corporate group.
The shareholders, at an extraordinary general meeting, passed a resolution to remove Mistry as a director with the requisite majority, the holding company of the Tata Group said in a statement.
Tata Sons had sacked Mistry as chairman on October 24 and named Ratan Tata as interim chairman, which triggered a public and legal battle.
Mistry had appealed before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal last week to stop Tata Sons from holding the shareholders’ meeting to remove him from the board, but his plea was dismissed.
Mistry’s ouster was long expected since Tata Trusts collectively own a 66% stake in Tata Sons while various Tata Group companies hold about 14%. In comparison, the two investment arms controlled by the Mistry family, Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investment Corporation Ltd, own 18.5%.
An email query to Cyrus Mistry seeking to know his next course of action did not elicit any immediate response.
Mistry, 47, had joined the board of Tata Sons in August 2006, after his father Pallonji Mistry stepped down. Mistry was named as the chief of Tata Group in November 2011 and had taken over as chairman of Tata Sons in December 2012 after Ratan Tata’s retirement. Tata had headed the group since 1991 before paving the way for Mistry.
The focus will now shift to the National Company Law Tribunal, where Mistry has challenged his ouster as chairman. The division bench of Justice BSV Prakash Kumar and member V Nallasenapathy will hear arguments from Mistry's counsels on 13-14 February. Tata Sons will get to express its views on 20-21 February.
The Mistry-owned companies had approached the tribunal on 20 December last year, alleging oppression and mismanagement by Ratan Tata and other directors of the group.
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