Tata Sons replaced Cyrus Mistry as Chairman in October 2016
Former Tata Sons Ltd chairman Cyrus Mistry's petition for a review of the Supreme Court's order last year, which backed his removal by the $100 billion salt-to-software conglomerate, will be heard in an open court on March 9.
Tata Sons had replaced Mr Mistry as Chairman, less than four years after he took charge, in October 2016.
Cyrus Investments had requested the Supreme Court to reconsider its March 2021 order, which was in favour of Tata group. In that hearing, a bench headed by the then Chief Justice SA Bobde had said Tata's decision to remove Mr Mistry was right.
A bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian had considered the matter in-chamber on February 15. However, Justice Ramasubramanian dissented and said in the order that the review plea deserves to be dismissed.
According to Supreme Court rules, review petitions are considered in the chamber, so the February 15 in-chamber meet was the first round of scrutiny for deciding whether the review petition by Mr Mistry would be heard.
Justice Subramanian, noting his dissent, said in his order: "With utmost respect, I regret my inability to agree with the order. I have carefully gone through the review petitions and I do not find any valid ground to review the judgment. The grounds raised in the review petitions do not fall within the parameters of a review and hence the applications seeking oral hearing deserve to be dismissed."
Abhishek Singhvi, the senior counsel for Tata group, said they have got information that the review petition has been kept for oral hearing.
"It is totally wrong to say, as has been suggested in some sections, that the review petition has been either admitted or allowed. Nothing of that sort has happened. The court on March 9 would only have an oral hearing to consider what further should be done in the review petition. It would not be advisable to speak about this matter further since it is in court and coming on March," said Mr Singhvi.
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, or NCLAT, had in December 2019 restored Mr Mistry as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons. That order, challenged by the Tatas, was scrapped by the Supreme Court in March last year.
Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata had said the Supreme Court order validated the values and ethics that had always guided the Tata group.
Mr Mistry's Shapoorji Pallonji Group had told the Supreme Court then that his removal as Chairman of Tata Sons in a board meeting in October 2016 was like a "blood sport" and "ambush" and in complete violation of principles of corporate governance and pervasive violation of Articles of Association in the process.