Tata Sons welcomes order from National Company Law Tribunal

The petition by Cyrus Mistry’s investment companies – Cyrus Investment and Sterling Investment Corp. – had alleged mismanagement and oppression of minority shareholders by the company. The order against the petition was given by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on April 17, 2017. 

It had ruled that the petitioners representing certain companies of the SP Group (SP Group Companies) failed to establish the merits of the petition. Per Tata Sons, the order has also noted that petitioners failed to demonstrate any cause of action against the company, the Tata Trusts and Ratan N. Tata. The company pointed out that the tribunal did not see a prima facie triable case to take forward. 

“The Tata group, led by Tata Sons, has always been committed to the highest ethical standards and principles of governance. We welcome the NCLT’s order, and it is an endorsement of these values and principles,” N. Chandrasekaran, Executive Chairman of Tata Sons, was quoted as saying. “Tata Sons and the operating companies are focussed on growth to deliver value to our shareholders, and we thank all stakeholders for their continued support.” 

On April 17, the NCLT dismissed a plea filed by Mistry’s investment firms to waive off a regulatory bar on them as their original petition had been rendered non-maintainable by the March 6th order. 

On March 6, the NCLT had ruled against the maintainability of the petition filed against Tata Sons, which cited governance lapses and compromise of minority shareholder interests after Mistry was ousted as Chairman of the holding company of the industrial conglomerate.