The board of Tata Global Beverages has >voted to remove Cyrus Mistry as the chairman of the company to replace him with Harish Bhat, who is currently a non-executive director on the board of the company that makes Tetley and Eight O’Clock Coffee.
Incidentally, Mr. Bhat is a Tata Group insider having joined the entity in 1987 under Tata Administrative Services (TAS). He has earlier worked as the chief operating officer of Titan and has also authored a book 'Tata Log: Eight Modern Stories From A Timeless Institution.'
This is the second instance of Mr. Mistry being ousted from a Tata entity. Earlier, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) replaced him with Ishaat Hussain as the interim chairman.
In a statement issued to the stock exchanges on Tuesday, the Tata Global Beverages said that the board has considered the continuance of Mr. Mistry as the chairman and has decided to replace him with Mr. Bhat in the long term interest of the company and the stakeholders.
“After extensive deliberations, and keeping in view the long term interest and alignment of all stakeholders and stability of the company, the board of directors resolved to replace Mr. Cyrus P. Mistry as chairman of the company, by majority vote, with 7 out of the 10 directors present at the board meeting, voting in favour of the resolution,” said a statement issued by the company to the stock exchanges.
Cyrus Mistry's office has, however, said that the statement is inaccurate and illegal as the matter related to removal of the chairman was not on the agenda and the meeting was concluded as Mr. Mistry as the chairman.
It also highlighted the fact that two independent directors - Darius Pandole and Analjit Singh - opposed the “bid at committing these illegal acts.”
“The Tatas continue to demonstrate the lack of respect for due process of law that they have displayed. Harish Bhat, an employee of Tata Sons proposed that Mr. S.K. Santhanakrishnan be made Chairman at the meeting. This proposal was ruled out since there was already a Chairman for the meeting, namely, Cyrus Mistry. When the proposal to remove Mr. Mistry was sought to be moved, it was ruled out by the Chairman since it was not on the agenda. The meeting was conducted by Mr. Mistry as Chairman and was concluded. The statement made to stock exchanges today is therefore inaccurate and illegal and it is but a repeat of exactly the same illegal acts done by Tata Sons Ltd on October 24,” said the statement from Mr Mistry's office.
Mr. Mistry has earlier found support in the boards of Indian Hotels Company, Tata Chemicals, Tata Motors and Tata Steel. The board meets of these companies happened post the sacking of Mr. Mistry as the chairman of Tata Sons on 24th October.
