The Supreme Court on Monday asked minority shareholder, Shapoorji Pallonji Group, what was wrong in the head of a family ‘wanting to control decisions.’
The question from a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde came when submissions were made by senior advocate C.A. Sundaram, for Cyrus Investments, about Ratan Tata’s ‘personal interest’ to have taxi aggregators use Tata cars.
“What is wrong in head of family wanting information or wanting to control decisions? Mr. Sundaram, you must bear in mind that this is a private company. Our experience with such companies is that they have heads of families controlling, giving directions etc. Birlas, Tata all have such structures. Your SP Group might also have it” Chief Justice Bobde said.
Mr. Sundaram said the Tata company owned many listed firms running to ₹65 lakh crore with public shareholders. “So, there should be some kind of independence in decision making.”
The beginning of the court hearing saw an unexpected development when the Chief Justice said his son, advocate Shrinivas Bobde, had been appearing for the last two years in a slum rehabilitation matter for a subsidiary company of Shapoorji Pallonji group.
But the lawyers on both sides said they had no problem with the Bench continuing to hear the case
The CJI said such issues could cause potential problems in future.
The case was scheduled for further hearing on December 15.
