Tata Sons, the holding company of over $100-billion Tata group, has slapped a legal notice on its ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry for alleged breach of confidentiality by making public sensitive and confidential documents.
This comes days after Mistry filed a petition on December 20 at the National Company Law Tribunal against his ouster from the chairmanship of Tata Sons. The tribunal will hear the matter next month. Mistry’s ouster on October 24 has triggered a bitter public spat between Tata Sons and its former chairman. Mr Mistry had in a surprise move earlier this month resigned from the boards of all listed Tata companies.
Breaking his silence over the feud with Mistry, Ratan Tata said there has been a “definite move” to damage his personal reputation in the last two months but truth will eventually prevail howsoever painful the process may be.
“Over the last two months, there has been a definite move to damage my personal reputation and the reputation of this great group – the Tata Group. And these days are very lonely because the newspapers are full of attacks, most of them unsubstantiated but nevertheless very painful,” Mr Tata had said at a meeting of Tata Chemicals shareholders.
Tata Chemicals shareholders had voted in favour of removal of Nusli Wadia as director from its board. Earlier, shareholders of two other Tata group companies – Tata Steel and Tata Motors – had also voted for Mr Wadia’s removal from their board.
Mr Wadia has filed a criminal defamation suit against Tata Sons and other board members, including interim chairman Mr Tata. The Wadia group chief had earlier denied allegations by Tata Sons that he was acting in concert with the ousted chairman Mr Mistry.