Industrialist Nusli Wadia filed a criminal defamation case against Tata Sons, interim Chairman Ratan Tata and various directors of the group on Friday, following up on a ₹3,000-crore defamation suit he had filed on December 16.
“All the accused... have committed the offence of defamation of the complainant by printing, publishing and circulating... false, frivolous, baseless, incorrect, libellous and defamatory material,” according to the petition filed in the court of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Mumbai.
The petition named many Tata Sons directors as accused, including industrialist Ajay Piramal, Amit Ranbir Chandra, Ishaat Hussain, Nitin Nohria, Ranendra Sen, Ralf Speth, N Chandrasekaran and FN Subedar. The petition, however, excluded Tata Sons’ ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry and independent director Farida Khambatta. Senior Advocate Abad Ponda is representing the complainant, it added.
Wadia, who was an independent director on the board of Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals, has accused the Tata Group of having caused “severe prejudice” to his “reputation” and “goodwill” in three special notices addressed to these companies’ boards.
Through the special notices, Tata Sons had sought Wadia’s removal as independent director on the board of Tata Chemicals, Tata Motors and Tata Steel.