With Nusli Wadia throwing his weight behind sacked Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry, the Tatas moved swiftly and sent notices to Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel and Tata Motors to get him removed from their boards.
The Tata Motors board will meet on Monday, according to a report by Reeba Zachariah in The Times of India.
Britannia and Bombay Dyeing chairman Nusli Wadi has been independent director on the Tata Chemicals board since 1981. He has also been on the boards of Tata Steel and Tata Motors since August 1979 and December 1998 respectively.
On Friday, Tata Sons sent notices to these three companies to call extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) for Wadia’s removal. Tata Sons needs majority backing from the shareholders of these companies to remove Wadia.
However, sources close to Wadia maintained that he could not be expected to blindly follow the Tata diktat, as he was an independent director.
Amit Tandon, founder & MD, Institutional Investor Advisory Services said the move was ‘unprecedented’. “I have not heard of any previous move when an independent director was removed from the board,“ said Tandon.
“The move (by the Tatas) goes very much against the concept and definition of independent directors,“ said Sandeep Parekh, founder, FinSec Law Advisors.
According to a Tata Group veteran, with Ratan on one side and Mistry and Wadia on the other, “the game has just got interesting”.