The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the review petition filed by the Shapoorji Pallonji Group challenging an earlier order of the Apex Court which had allowed Tata Son’s appeal against an NCLAT order to reinstate the ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry.
“Sorry, review not entertained. Dismissed,” Chief Justice N. V Ramana after hearing advocates C Aryama Sundaram and Shyam for the review petitioners.
Tata Sons welcomed the order, saying that it “reaffirms, once again, Tata Group’s position which was upheld by a unanimous judgement last year. Tata Sons reiterates it commitment to work towards nation building, and maintaining standards of governance and ethical conduct that have guided Tata Group in all its businesses over the years”.
The review petitions, dismissed by the Court today, had been filed by the Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SPG) companies Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd. The Court, however, agreed to expunge certain adverse remarks against Cyrus Mistry from the judgement. “We will confer and delete some sentences,” the CJI said. Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Tata Sons, conceded that some remarks could be expunged. “As an act of grace, you may delete one or two observations,” he said.
But the Court took exception to a line in Mistry’s application – “The judgement is worse than a press statement”. The bench told Somasekharan Sundaram, who appeared for Mistry, to withdraw such statements. The counsel replied that there was no intention to hurt the judges and agreed to withdraw the statement. The counsel said there was no intention to hurt the judges and agreed to withdraw the remarks.
The review petition had been filed against an earlier decision by a Supreme Court bench comprising the then CJI S. A. Bobde, Justice A. S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian that set aside a National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order on December 18, 2019 which had restored Cyrus Mistry as the Executive Chairman of the Tata Group and quashed the decision taken by the Board of Tata Sons in October, 2016 to remove him. The NCLAT order had set aside a National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order that had upheld the appointment of N Chandrasekharan as Chairman in Mistry’s place and dismissed the petitions by SPG under Sections 241 and 245 of the Companies Act, 2013 alleging oppression and mismanagement in the Tata Sons.