SC puts battle between Tata, Mistry for final hearing on December 2

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put the legal battle related to appointment of Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman of Tata group, for final arguments on December 2.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian told the counsel that the court would hear the final arguments on December 2.

Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for Mistry, tried to point towards an affidavit. To this, the court said everything would be covered during the final hearing.

On September 22, the court had restrained Shapoorji Pallonji group and Mistry from pledging or transferring Tata Sons' shares owned by them.

The court had ordered them not to take any further action on the shares they have already pledged for raising money.

"The parties shall maintain status quo regarding transfer and pledging of shares and further action in regard to the transfer and pledging of shares already made," the court said in its order.

The plea by Tata Sons came post Pallonji Group's agreement with Canada based Brookfield to raise Rs 3,750 crore by pledging Tata Sons shares.

Tata Sons relied upon Articles of Association (AoA) to claim that it restricted Pallonji Group from transferring shares, without allowing Tata Sons the right of first refusal.

The Shapoorji Pallonji Group, through its two investment firms, Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments, held around 18 per cent in Tata Sons. The group opposed Tata Sons' plea, on the ground that pledging of shares was not the same as transferring ownership of shares.

On January 10, the top court had stayed the NCLAT order restoring Mistry as executive chairman of the Tata Group, observing that there were 'lacunae' in the orders passed by the tribunal.

NCLAT had on December 18 ordered reinstatement of Mistry as the head of Tata Sons, the holding company of USD 110 billion salt-to-software conglomerate, saying his 2016 sacking was wrong.