India’s Tata Group files appeal on ex-CEO

New Delhi (Bloomberg): Tata Sons Ltd. asked India’s top court to put on hold a company tribunal’s order last month that asked the $111 billion group to rehire the chairman it had fired in 2016.

The firm filed a petition in the Supreme Court, its lawyer Abhishek M Singhvi said. The petition seeks an urgent hearing for a stay on the previous order.

The latest move by the Tata Group aims to reverse the shock defeat in December when the tribunal instructed that Cyrus Mistry be reinstated as the chairman and called the appointment of his replacement Natarajan Chandrasekaran illegal. The ruling effectively paralyzed the Tata leadership and its efforts to revive growth by selling assets, finding partners and cutting costs.

The court ruling also called the actions of Ratan Tata, group’s chairman emeritus and the one who led Mistry’s ouster, as “oppressive”.

Tata Sons, the 152-year-old group’s main holding company that also owns the Tetley Tea as well luxury car brands such as Jaguar and Land Rover, was given four weeks to appeal the ruling.