Board member Ishaat Hussain replaces Cyrus Mistry as TCS chairman

New Delhi: Tata Sons has appointed board member Ishaat Hussain as the Chairman of the group's hugely successful IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in place of Cyrus Mistry, who was ousted last month.

"The company (TCS) has received a letter dated November 9, 2016 from Tata Sons Ltd nominating Ishaat Hussain as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company in place of Cyrus P Mistry with immediate effect. In view of this, Mistry has ceased to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company and Hussain is the new Chairman of the company," TCS said in a regulatory filing.

TCS said Hussain shall hold office as the Chairman of the company until a new Chairman is appointed in his place.

"Tata Sons has issued a special notice under Section 169 read with Section 115 of the Companies Act, 2013 and a requisition for convening an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders of the company under Section 100(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 to consider a resolution for the removal of Cyrus P Mistry as Director of the Company," it added.

On November 5, Tata Sons put in place a new management team for the $100 billion steel-to-software group, days after its board ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and disbanded his advisory council, triggering a public spat between him and Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata, patriarch of the Tata group who was temporarily back at the helm as interim chairman earlier, put together a team of five executives, including two former Mistry advisers, Tata Sons said in a statement on Friday.

Mistry was unceremoniously removed as Tata Sons chairman in October by the Board of Directors.

It was reported that his sacking was due to his handling of the Tata conglomerate’s loss-making operations abroad, some of which he wished to sell off. Mistry was also accused of abandoning the philosophy of the Tatas in his quest to close loss making concerns. In particular, it was said that Mistry wished to shut down Tata Nano.

Mistry, reportedly shocked by his sacking, had alleged that Ratan Tata regularly interfered in the working of Tata Sons even after naming him chairman. He also claimed financial irregularities in AirAsia India.

A day after being sacked as chairman, Mistry in a letter to Tata Sons Board on October 25 raised “ethical concerns” in AirAsia India and alleged that forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore. However, the Tatas rubbished the claims.

Mistry and Tata were reported to have met Prime Minister Narendra Modi separately. The government said it was keeping a close watch on the ongoing row. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will look into Tata Sons' ousted chairman's allegations related to the mismanagement of the group's aviation ventures, a report said.