It was N Chandrasekaran’s “own decision” to not offer himself for reappointment, Noel Tata underlined Thursday as Tata Sons said its board voted to reappoint the 63-year-old Tata Sons chairman for another five-year term .
their shareholding in the parent firm gives them decisive influence over the group’s future While Tata Trusts does not play a role in the day-to-day management of the conglomerate. The chairmanship of this Company is an office held by a director of this Company. The Chairman’s own position as a director is presently uncertain, the general meeting at which that question falls to be determined not having been able to proceed for want of quorum. Until that question is resolved, a resolution upon the chairmanship rests upon a foundation which has not yet been laid. He then pointed out a practical problem that may drag the company in legal trouble. “I would add a practical consideration. A decision upon the chairmanship taken now, and afterwards found to have been taken in respect of a person whose office as director was not free from doubt, would be open to serious legal challenge by any shareholder who chose to bring it. This Company should not expose itself to a challenge of that kind at any time,” he cautioned.
Noel Tata is chairman of Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic institutions, which owns 66 percent of Tata Sons. Tata Sons is the principal holding company and promoter of the Tata Group, a $180 billion conglomerate whose interests range from salt to software. The decision, Noel Tata says, was then placed in the public domain and released without prior deliberation with the shareholders of the company, and in particular without deliberation with the Tata Trusts, which holds approximately 66% of its equity. The reappointment nullifies N Chandrasekaran’s own stated decision, the acceptance of that decision by the majority shareholder, and the further process which that shareholder has asked this Company to set in motion, Noel, 68, said. Read | One Company, 40-Year Career: The N Chandrasekaran Story “There is a logically prior question which remains unresolved.
We cannot put the cart before the horse,” he said.
