Tata vs Mistry: SC dismisses Mistry’s review petition against March 2021 judgment

New Delhi, May 19 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed review petitions filed on behalf of Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd and Sterling Investments Pvt Ltd, seeking review of the apex court’s March 2021 judgment upholding the Tata Group’s decision to remove Cyrus Mistry as executive Chairman of Tata Sons.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian, after hearing arguments from counsel representing Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments, said: “Sorry, review not entertained. Dismissed.”

Senior advocates C.A. Sundaram and Shyam Divan argued review petitions filed by Shapoorji Pallonji Group companies.

In a separate application for expunging remarks, the top court agreed to expunge certain remarks made against Mistry. However, it took objection to a remark in the application on the judgment which was delivered last year.

The bench told counsel representing Mistry to withdraw such a statement. Counsel replied that there was no intention to hurt the judges and agreed to withdraw the statement.

Concluding the hearing in the matter, the bench said: “We’ll confer and delete some sentences.”

In a statement, Tata Group’s Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said: “We would like to express our grateful appreciation of the judgement passed and upheld by the Supreme Court today. it reinforces the value systems and ethics of our judiciary. We particularly wish to thank you for everything you did to argue this case throughout the deliberations of the case.”

In February this year, the top court had agreed to hear review petitions filed by Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments against the apex court verdict, where it accepted all contentions of the Tata conglomerate and set aside the order of the NCLAT, which restored Cyrus Mistry as the Executive Chairman of the Tata conglomerate.

In March last year, a bench headed by then Chief Justice S.A. Bobde said all questions of law are in favour of Tata Group and dismissed the appeals filed by Mistry. The top court also upheld the Tata Sons decision to sack Cyrus Mistry on October 24, 2016.

In February this year, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ramana and comprising Justices Bopanna and Ramasubramanian considered the review petition filed by Mistry. Justice Ramasubramanian dissented.

The top court, in its February 15 order, said: “Applications seeking exemption from filing affidavits are allowed. Applications seeking oral hearing of the Review Petitions are allowed. List the Review Petitions on Wednesday, the 9th March, 2022.”

Justice Ramasubramanian, in his dissenting opinion, said: “With utmost respect, I regret my inability to agree with the order. I have carefully gone through the Review Petitions and I do not find any valid ground to review the judgment. The grounds raised in the Review Petitions do not fall within the parameters of a review and hence the applications seeking oral hearing deserve to be dismissed.”

In the verdict passed on March 26 last year, the top court said: “We find all the questions of law are liable to be answered in favour of the appellants (Tata Group) and the appeals filed by the Tata Group are liable to be allowed and Shapoorji Pallonji group is liable to be dismissed.” – IANS