Ousted Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry has submitted fresh evidence to the National Company Law Tribunal in a bid to prove his allegations of interference by Ratan Tata.
The voluminous affidavit, filed on Monday, contains emails, letters and documents, and is aimed at showing that Mistry had flagged the need for a governance framework and clear decision-making processes.
The documents also attempt to convey that all decisions taken by Mistry, for which he has now been faulted by the Tata group, were done with the full knowledge of Ratan and Tata Trusts nominees.
For example, in a letter dated February 2, 2016, Mistry stated: “If we can clearly understand the process of consultation, at what stage in the decision making process the Trusts would like to be involved and a point of contact in the trust, who would convey trusts views....it might be appropriate for the Trust nominees to exercise their judgement at the Board meetings after hearing the deliberations.”
This letter is to back Mistry’s allegations that in the absence of a governance framework, the Tata Trusts nominees were acting as mouthpieces of Ratan.
Mistry has produced emails from FN Subedar, Company Secretary and CFO, dated June 7, 2016, and another from the legal council of Tata Group to show that Ratan was aware of the proceedings related to Tata Teleservices and NTT DoCoMo. “Ratan’s assertions that he had no role to play in the dispute resolution process with DoCoMo is false to his own knowledge. ....Ratan went so far as to suggest that Tata Sons ought to explore the possibility of suing DoCoMo for defamation as he believed that DoCoMo was clearly seeking to tarnish the reputation of the Tata Group,” Mistry said in the affidavit.
Hearing on Jan 31 The NCLT is scheduled to hear the case again on January 31. Mistry’s fresh affidavit comes even as the ousted Chairman has not received a favourable ruling from any of the regulatory bodies so far.
Earlier, the Tribunal had declined to give interim relief to Mistry, who had challenged the move by Tata Sons to hold an EGM on February 6. This EGM has been called to oust him as a Director on the Tata Sons board.
Market regulator SEBI also declined to pursue complaints against Tata Sons at its recent board meeting. SEBI found no merit in Mistry’s allegation over violation of insider trading norms in Tata Group companies.