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23
December 2016
 |
Nusli Wadia (The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions)
Nusli
Wadia, Chairman of the Wadia Group, has filed a criminal defamation case
against Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group and all its directors,
including Ratan Tata.
Mr
Wadia, in a complaint filed before the Additional Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate, says, "...the defamatory and offending contents of the Special
Notices have caused severe prejudice to the reputation and good will of the
Complainant (Mr Wadia) as also affected his status as an independent director
not only in the Tata Group companies, but as a Director in various other
companies; and will continue to have a cascading effect on the Complainant’s
reputation and goodwill in business circles within India and abroad. By making
false and baseless innuendos and allegations against the Complainant, the
Accused have caused distress, hurt and humiliation, as well as pecuniary loss,
social disadvantages, injury to feelings, mental pain and suffering to the
Complainant." The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The
complaint is filed against Mr Tata, Ajay Piramal, Amit Chandra, Ishaat Hussain,
Nitin Nihria, Ranendra Sen, Vijay Singh, Venu Srinivasan, Ralf Speth, N
Chandrasekaran, and FN Subedar. The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
"The
Special Notices have been sent on the letter head of Tata Sons and have been
signed by FN Subedar, COO and Company Secretary of Tata Sons. The Accused are
thus liable for printing, publishing and circulating the said per se defamatory
material. Accused are persons who are on the board of directors of Tata Sons
and they are responsible for the contents of the notices which are defamatory
and which contents are so printed, published and circulated by Tata Sons and FN
Subedar on the instructions of the Board of Directors of Tata sons (excluding
Cyrus Mistry and Farida Khambatta). It is thus clear that Tata Sons is the
principal offender who has committed the offence of defamation along with FN
Subedar, while the Board Members of Tata Sons, excluding Mr Mistry and Ms
Khambatta, have shared common intention and or abetted the offence by actively
participating in the same after a prior concert and have thus committed
offences under Section 500 and Section 500 read with Section 109, and or
Section 500, read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. The Accused are thus
liable to be prosecuted and punished for the said offences committed by
them," the complaint by Mr Wadia states.
According
to Mr Wadia, he was an independent director on Tata Steel Ltd, Tata Chemicals
Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd, which are three operating companies of the Tata Group.
He said, "Within hours of the Tata Chemicals Board meeting (on 10 November
2016), the Board of Directors of Tata Sons and its Directors through a circular
resolution, inter alia, resolved to submit a requisition to the three operating
companies for convening an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of their
shareholders for the purpose of passing resolutions for the removal of the
Nusli Wadia and Mr Mistry as Directors of the three operating companies.
Shortly thereafter, Mr Subedar signed and issued at the behest of Tata Sons and
its Directors the three Special Notices dated 10 November 2016 addressed to the
Boards of Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals."
Mr
Wadia claims that on 11 November 2016, at a meeting of independent directors of
Tata Steel, he first learnt about the special notice issued by Tata Sons
seeking his removal from the company board. On the same day, he says, he
received three separate forwarded emails from Tata Steel, Tata Chemicals and
Tata Motors, which was the special notice issued by Tata Sons.
The
complaint filed by the Wadia group chief named eight eminent people as witness
to the complaint. The witnesses include, AM Naik (Group Executive Chairman of
Larsen & Toubro Ltd), Subhodh Bhargava (Chairman of Tata Communications Ltd
and Independent Director of Tata Motors Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd), Vinesh Jairath
(Non-Executive, Independent Director of Tata Motors Ltd), Tanya Godrej–Dubash
(Executive Director and Chief Brand Officer of the Godrej Group), Darius
Udwadia (Senior Partner at Udwadia, Udeshi & Argus), Rajesh Batra (Chairman
of Batra Group. Founder of Proline, an Indian Apparel and Sportswear brand), Dr
MJ Jassawalla (Renowned Gynaecology and Obstetrics specialist) and Dr Behroze
Deputy (a Shareholder of National Peroxide Ltd). The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions
In
his complaint, Mr Wadia is seeking simple imprisonment for up to two years and
fine to Tata Sons and its directors for defamation, abetment and criminal act
with common intention, as well as compensation as per provisions of Section 357
of the Code of Criminal Procedure.The Total
Investment & Insurance Solutions
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