Bombay HC refuses to stay proceedings in case against Tata

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on  Wednesday refused to stay proceedings before a magistrate court in a 2016 criminal defamation case filed by Nusli Wadia against Ratan Tata and some other directors of Tata Sons.
 
A single bench presided over by Justice Mridula Bhatkar refused to extend her March 18 order, whereby she had restrained the magistrate court from hearing the case till March 27.  

The court was hearing a writ petition filed by Tata and the other directors seeking that the complaint, FIR and charge sheet filed against them in the case be quashed.

While senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who represents Tata in the case, sought an extension of such stay, Justice Bhatkar pointed out that the next hearing before the magistrate court would be in July this year.  She said that the HC will hear the quashing matter before July and therefore, the stay was not necessary.

In December 2018, a magistrate court in the city had issued notices to Ratan Tata and other directors of Tata Sons in the criminal defamation case filed by Mr  Wadia.  

Mr Wadia had filed the case in 2016 after he was voted out of the boards of some Tata Group companies.

Mr Wadia had claimed that Tata and others made defamatory statements against him after they removed Cyrus Mistry on October 24, 2016 as the group chairman of Tata Sons. Mr

Wadia was on the boards as an independent director of group companies when shareholders at a specially convened general meeting between December 2016 and February 2017 voted him out.