Tata Trusts, TCS, Tata Tele move SC seeking to set aside NCLAT ruling

The trustees of two Tata trusts, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) have moved the Supreme Court seeking to set aside the appellate tribunal’s December 18 ruling, terming it as factually and conceptually wrong.

All the petitions — including that of Ratan N Tata and Tata Sons — were filed separately and will be mentioned before the Chief Justice of India on Monday.

Read: Tata Sons moves SC against Mistry’s reinstatement

In its December 18 ruling, the National Company Appellate Law Tribunal (NCLAT) has ordered the reinstatement of ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry and directed Tata Sons to reinstate Mistry as director of the company and director of three Tata companies.

The very premise of the judgment — that there are two groups of shareholders in Tata Sons — the majority Tata Group and the minority SP Group — is factually and conceptually wrong, a civil appeal moved by the trustees said.

The appeal was filed by Sir Dorab Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust (through all their trustees) and Noshir Soonawala, a former Tata Trusts trustee and a confidante of Ratan Tata, who retired in March 2019.

Read: Tata-Mistry case: NCLAT adjourns hearing on Mumbai RoC's plea to Friday

The appellants (trustees) are aggrieved by the judgment of NCLAT which set aside the judgment and order dated July 9, 2018 passed by the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai (NCLT), it said.

‘Grave errors of law’

The judgment suffers from grave errors of law and is essentially a judgment of unexplained conclusions which are based on no reasoning or reasoning, erroneous as a matter of law and practice of company law and is derived from factually incorrect assumptions, it added.

On its part, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) is contesting the ruling to reinstate Mistry as a director on its board.

The appellant was not a party to the proceedings either before the NCLT or NCLAT. No relief was sought by the contesting respondents (Cyrus Mistry companies) against the appellant in relation to the removal of Mistry from its board, TTSL said in the petition.

The company also said that Mistry was removed following an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on December 14, 2016. Mistry, who was not present at the EGM, also did not make a representation, it added.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has also moved the Supreme Court on the same lines of TTSL, contesting the order to reinstate Mistry as a director.