Mistry seeks to stall Tata Sons shareholding meeting, files petition

Ousted Tata Sons’ chairman Cyrus Mistry has now moved a petition at the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. This move made by Mistry is to clear his position of maintainability of the case and stall Tata Sons shareholders meeting, which is to be held on February 6 and is called to vote out Mistry from the board.

NCLAT judges, however, did not pass an order on Tata Sons shareholder meeting on Feb 6 and clear its position of maintainability of the case before starting his arguments on the main petition, so that he could appeal against any adverse decision.

Recently, hearing of the petition filed by Mistry's family firms against Tata Sons was adjourned for two weeks by NCLAT at the request of Mistry's counsel C Aryama Sundaram.

According to the two-member bench comprising of B.S.V. Prakash Kumar and V. Nallasenapathy, Mistry firms' refusal to argue the main petition was disobedience of the court. The judge has called the next hearing on Feb 13 and 14.

"The roadmap of the hearing was already laid out of Dec 22, 2016 and Jan 18, 2017. There was time in between but the petitioner had not appealed on any order. It was obvious that matters had been dealt with. Therefore the argument is unmeritorious. Hope that the petitioner (Mistry firms) will argue after two weeks, failing which the petition will stand dismissed," Justice Kumar told ET.

Mistry’s counsel- Sundaram wanted the NCLT judges to pass an order on Tata Sons shareholder meeting on Feb 6 and clear its position of maintainability of the case before starting his arguments on the main petition, so that he could appeal against any adverse decision.

"We were very particular that an order should be passed on it either way rather than keep it pending, otherwise Feb 6th will come and go," Sundaram told the press on Tuesday after the hearing. "Now we may want to take other remedies against the order and that is why we asked for an adjournment. Today the bench indicated that the interim application (against holding Tata Sons shareholder meeting) was refused and rejected."