The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) declined to entertain the petition filed by the Registrar of Companies requesting for a review of the NCLAT’s judgement in the Cyrus Mistry vs Tata Sons case. 

In the judgement delivered by the NCLAT on December 18, 2019, the action of the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in converting Tata Sons into a private firm from being a public firm came under heavy criticism. It termed the conversion of Tata Sons into a private company as illegal.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under which the RoC operates, was of the view that the judges at the NCLAT were not fair in terming it illegal. RoC said that it had followed the Companies Act in the right manner and the due process was followed in granting approval to Tata Sons to be converted into a privately held firm. The Ministry felt the RoC must appeal to the NCLAT to set the record straight and if possible, have the comments deleted.

The two judges, including the Chairman of the Tribunal Justice Mukhopadhaya, however, dismissed the review petition saying there is no ground to amend the December 18 judgement. NCLAT further said that its judgement has no aspersions cast against the RoC.

The original case at the NCLAT relates to the one filed by Cyrus Mistry for having been wrongly removed from the post of Executive Chairman of the Tata Group by Ratan Tata and being replaced by N Chandrasekharan.

In a verdict last month, the NCLAT set aside this action by Tata Sons and reinstated Mistry. The judgment also held Chandrasekharan’s appointment illegal. Allowing the right to appeal, the NCLAT judges kept their judgement in abeyance for a month. Ratan Tata, as well as Tata Consultancy Services, have moved the Supreme Court to appeal against the NCLAT judgement. The apex court is likely to hear the appeal in the next few days.