New Delhi, Aug 24 : In a temporary relief to Cyrus Mistry, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Friday stated that Tata Sons cannot force him to sell his shares till the disposal of his appeal.

However, the appellate tribunal declined his plea for a stay on the conversion of Tata Sons into a private company.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya said it will decide on the conversion of Tata Sons, parent company of $103 billion Tata Group, from a public limited company into a private limited company after hearing the final arguments. The next hearing of the case is slated for September 24.

Mistry, who took over as Tata Group Chairman in December 2012 and was ousted in October 2016 by the Tata Sons board, had filed the petition with the NCLAT against the July 9 decision of the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) Mumbai bench.

The bench had upheld the decision of the Tata Sons board dismissing Mistry as Chairman.

On July 9, the NCLT Mumbai bench ruled that the Tata Sons Board of Directors was competent to remove the Executive Chairman and that Mistry was ejected as the board members had lost confidence in him.

The NCLT verdict had come on a petition filed by Mistry after he was abruptly ousted as the Chairman that had created an upheaval in the Indian corporate world.

Mistry later quit from the board of other six Tata Group companies but challenged the Group, and former and interim Chairman Ratan Tata's decisions, before the NCLT.

Last September, the shareholders of Tata Sons agreed to convert the public limited company into a private limited company, which in effect would restrict any shareholder from selling its stake to outsiders.

The shareholders approved the conversion saying it would help the company become more swift in decision making despite Mistry's opposition to it. Mistry, through his family firms Cyrus Investments and Sterling Investments, owns 18.4 per cent of Tata Sons while 66 per cent is owned by Tata Trusts.

Mistry's family had termed the decision as an act of oppression of minority shareholders.

On August 10, the Registrar of Companies approved the decision of Tata Sons to go private.




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Mumbai: A labour contractor helped the Mumbai police track down the attacker, who stabbed actor Saif Ali Khan, in the neighbouring Thane district, an official said on Sunday.

The police have arrested Shariful Islam Shehzad Mohammad Rohilla Amin Fakir (30), a Bangladeshi national, for the attack that took place at the Bollywood star's house in Bandra in the early hours of Thursday.

The official said the crime branch and the local police had formed multiple teams to trace the accused, who had eluded them for more than two days.

During the probe, the police found that the accused was seen outside Dadar railway station thrice and had gone to Worli Koliwada, he said.

The police examined hundreds of CCTV footage and found out that the attacker had visited a labour contractor in the area, the official said.

He said the labour contractor gave the police all the details about the attacker, and based on his direction, the police traced him to a labour camp in a forested area in Thane, from where he was apprehended.

The official said the accused had worked for a Thane-based hotel in the past, and so far, no criminal record in his name has come to light.

The Bollywood star was repeatedly stabbed with a knife by the intruder inside his 12th-floor apartment in upscale Bandra in a shocking attack that raised intriguing questions about security, motive, and celebrity life.

Khan (54) underwent emergency surgery at the Lilavati Hospital, where he was rushed following the incident that took place around 2.30 am at his apartment in the 'Satguru Sharan' building. He is recovering and may be discharged soon, doctors said.