Mistry’s petition not maintainable, rules corporate tribunal

Mumbai, March 6 (IANS) A top corporate tribunal on Monday ruled against the petition filed by Cyrus Mistry's investment companies against Tata Sons as non-maintainable.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) gave its ruling on the maintainability of the petition filed by the Cyrus Investment and Sterling Investment Corp.

The petition was filed against Tata Sons with the NCLT citing governance lapses and compromise of minority shareholder interests after Mistry was ousted as the Chairman of the holding company of the industrial conglomerate.

On Feburary 20, the NCLT had reserved its orders on the maintainability of the petition filed by Mistry's investment companies.

Earlier, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal had ruled that the issue of maintainability of petitions will have to be heard and disposed of first before the case can proceed any further.

The issue of petitions' maintainability assumes importance as according to the Companies Act, a shareholder needs at least 10 per cent of the total share capital of the company.

The holding company of the industrial conglomerate Tata Group had argued that the Mistry family held less than three per cent of the the total issued share capital of Tata Sons.

Under the current rules, only a shareholder with more than 10 per cent effective shareholding can file a minority interest petition with the NCLT.

However, the NCLT said that it will hear the waiver petition on March 7.

The Companies Act empowers the NCLT to waive off the requirement for a petitioner to hold at least 10 per cent of the total issued share capital of the company.

On October 24 last year, Tata Sons' Board ousted Mistry as its Chairman and appointed Ratan Tata as Interim Chairman.

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