Cyrus Mistry misled the committee on Ratan Tata's successor: Tata Sons

Tata Sons on Sunday hit out at ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry for misleading the Selection Committee set up in 2011 for selecting a Chairman of Tata Sons to succeed Ratan Tata, by making lofty statements about his plans for the Tata Group.

"Mistry indicated an elaborate management structure for managing the Tata Group, given its diversity of business, by suggesting a management structure aimed at dispersal of authority and responsibility. These statements and commitments from Cyrus Mistry played an important role in the Selection Committee's final selection of Mistry as Chairman. After waiting for a period of four years, almost none of these management structures and plans have been given effect to," Tata Sons said in a press release.

It also said that Mistry was informed that he should distance himself from his family enterprise - Shapoorji Pallonji & Company and the other Shapoorji Pallonji Group entities of which he is a major shareholder by putting his shareholding in an arms-length Trust.

"Mistry agreed but after some time, Mr. Mistry retracted his position and indicated that he could not find a way of doing so. Such conduct by Mistry was inappropriate and created a sense of breach of trust on his part. It also posed a significant challenge to the high corporate governance principles Tata Sons strived for," the press release said.