The Bombay High Court is scheduled to hear on June 10, 2019 a petition filed by the Tata Sons Ltd (TS) board of directors relating to a criminal defamation case filed against them by industrialist and former TS director Nusli Wadia (pictured r), reported Hindustan Times (HT, April 19, 2019). Ratan Tata (pictured l) and 10 other directors approached the High Court on March 7 "challenging the issuance of process against them by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) at Ballard Pier.” A
division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre has instructed Wadia to file an affidavit in reply to the TS petition.
According to the report, TS "contended that none of the contents of the special notices were defamatory as such as those did not (contain) any innuendo. Besides, their petition stated, the statements were meant only for the boards of directors of the three group companies, and were not circulated or published either by Tata Sons or any of its directors, and therefore they cannot be proceeded against for criminal defamation.
"In the aftermath of the corporate battle between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry, Wadia, an independent director on the board of a number of Tata group companies, had in April 2016 replaced Mistry as interim chairman of three group companies — Tata Chemicals Limited, Tata Steel Limited and Tata Motors Limited.
"After his unceremonious removal from the board of the three companies, the 73-year-old Wadia Group chairman, on December 23, 2016, approached the magistrate court…
"Wadia complained that a number of statements made in the special notices dated November 10, 2016 were defamatory and ruined his reputation. Some of the objectionable statements, he claimed, included – Wadia acted in concert with Cyrus Mistry, he acted against the interests of the Tata group, he acted in the manner designed to harm the Tata group, his actions may put Tata Steel Limited and its future in grave prejudice, and so on.”