Ratan Tata, Tata Sons Directors Summoned in Nusli Wadia's Defamation Suit

New Delhi: The 38th Magistrate Court in Ballard Pier, Mumbai, on Saturday agreed to hear a defamation suit filed by Nusli Wadia, chairman, Wadia Group against Ratan Tata, chairman Tata Trusts and Tata Sons directors including Ajay Piramal, Amit Chandra, Ishaat Hussain, Nitin Nohria, Ranendra Sen, Vijay Singh, Venu Srinivasan, Ralf Speth, N. Chandrasekaran and F.N. Subedar. The court has issued a process and directed them to appear before it.

Counsel Abad Ponda appearing for Wadia stated that following the removal of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata Sons in October 2016, all the aforementioned persons had made several defamatory statements against his client.

Tata Sons had alleged that Wadia was acting against the interests of the Tata Group and in concert with a former manager, in order to cause harm to the Tata Group despite being an independent director on the Board of a few Tata companies. Tata Sons had also accused Wadia of “acting without bonafides and putting the future of Tata Steel and its employees in grave jeopardy”.

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Tata and the aforementioned people will now face trial for the charges of criminal defamation under Sections 499, 500 and 501 of Indian Penal Code. The punishment of an offence under Section 500 is simple imprisonment for a term that may extend to two years and may also include a fine.

The accused will have to appear before the magistrate and seek formal bail from the court at its next hearing which has been fixed for March 25, 2019. Wadia filed a criminal defamation case against Tata Sons and its then interim Chairman Ratan Tata and various directors on December 23, 2016, following up on a Rs 33 billion defamation suit he had filed on December 16.

This article was first published on Business Standard. Read the original here.

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