Tata Sons has served a legal notice on ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry, accusing him of breaching confidentiality clauses by making public sensitive information.
The notice also wanted Mistry to “cease and desist” from sharing sensitive information he had access to, in his capacity as a director.
“Such reckless failure on your part in discharging your fiduciary, legal and contractual duties has caused irreparable harm and damage to Tata Sons and Tata Group… Your actions and omissions has (sic) exposed Tata Sons to potential claims from third party for breach of confidentiality and our client has every intention to make you liable for all such claims,” the notice issued by law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas said.
“Such deliberate actions and omissions on your part, clearly establishes the fact that contrary to all your claims, you are no well-wisher of Tata Sons and the Tata Group companies,” it added. The notice, sent on Tuesday, accuses Mistry of including in his National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) filing information about Tata Sons, including its business strategies and financial data.
On December 20, Mistry had moved NCLT through two family-owned firms — Cyrus Investment Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investment Pvt Ltd — seeking to protect Tata Sons from “oppression and mismanagement” under various sections of the Companies Act.
Tata Sons’ notice termed the alleged passing on of sensitive information by Mistry a violation of the confidentiality undertakings he made to Tata Sons, as also of the Tata Code of conduct. The notice also demanded documents, which are unrelated to the matters, “suitably redacted”.
Fully compliant: Cyrus team Reacting to the legal notice, sources close to Mistry said: “We believe we are fully compliant with all legal requirements. An appropriate response has been sent. Only those afraid of the facts would seek to suppress facts.”