Independent director Nusli Wadia has been removed from the Tata Steel’s board on Thursday as about 91 per cent of shareholders present at Wednesday’s EGM, voted in favor of his dismissal. In a regulatory filing, the company said out of its total shares of 97.12 crore, 62.54 crore votes were polled.
“Total vote in favour of the resolution was 56.79 crore, i.e. 90.80 per cent, and total vote against the motion was 5.75 crore, i.e. 9.20 per cent,” the company said.
“The motion (was) carried in favour of the resolution with overwhelming majority way beyond a special resolution hurdle of 75 per cent, even though this motion was an ordinary resolution requiring simple majority,” added the company.
About 29.59 crore of the promoter and promoter firms that held 30.45 crore shares voted. The total number of votes polled by non-promoter shareholders was 32.95 crore. The total number of votes polled against the proposal was 5.75 crore.
According to the company, even if the promoter votes were excluded, the voting outcome showed a vast majority (3/4th) in favour of the resolution. “Both institutional and retail voted on a similar pattern with significant majority well beyond the 3/4th majority mark in all categories,” the company said.
Wadia skipped Tuesday’s EGM, saying it was stage-managed. He filed ₹3,000-crore defamation suit against Ratan Tata, Tata Sons and some of its directors last week. The case was filed following the move by Tata Sons to remove him from the board of the 3 companies.
Wadia denied allegations by Tata Sons that he was acting in favour of ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry. He also refuted claims that he was “galvanising” independent directors and mobilising opinion, as “baseless and completely unsubstantiated”.
