The Supreme Court on Friday will deliver its verdict in the cross-appeals filed by Tata Sons Limited and Cyrus Investments against an order by the NCLAT that had restored Cyrus Mistry as the executive chairman of the over $100 million salt-to-software Tata Group after he was ousted in 2016. 

According to the listings on the Supreme Court website, the verdict is likely to be given by a bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and will also include Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. The bench had reserved its judgment in the case last year on December 17. 

The removal of Cyrus as the chairman of  Tata Sons during a board meeting in October 2016 was like a ‘blood sport’, Shapoorji Pallonji Group had told the apex court. It had added that the ouster completely violated the principles of corporate governance and was a pervasive violation of the Articles of Association in the process.

However, Tata Group had opposed the allegations by the SP Group, saying that there was no wrongdoing in Cyrus’ ouster as the board was well within its rights to take such a step. 

The December 18, 2019 order by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which had reserved the ouster, restoring Cyrus as the executive chairman of the Tata conglomerate, was put on hold by the Supreme Court on January 10 last year. 

Cyrus had succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of Tata Sons in 2012 and was ousted four years after that. 

Tata Sons had told the apex court that it was not a “two-group company” and there was no “quasi-partnership” between them and Cyrus Investments Pvt Ltd. 

Last year in December, Cyrus, replying to Tata’s petition, had demanded that Ratan Tata should reimburse all the expenses to Tata Sons since he left in December 2012. According to the cross-appeal, Cyrus is seeking 18.37%, which is the percentage of stake held by his family, representation in the company.