Nusli Wadia asks SEBI to take action against 3 Tata firms' directors

Nusli Wadia, Chairman of the Wadia Group, in a letter, has asked market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to take action against Tata Group's three independent directors for alleged wrong declarations made in the annual reports.

The three directors are -- Tata Steel's Andrew Robb, Mallika Srinivasan and independent director of Tata Chemicals and Tata Motors Naseer Munjee, a report in the Business Standard said.

In an 8-page letter, Wadia said that proper action is yet to be taken by the regulator since his first complaint filed on January 6.

A 'full and impartial' investigation needs to be done on the reports submitted by 'illegal and unconstitutional' audit committee, Wadia said.

For this, the regulator will need to disregard the audit committees and statements made by them during the earlier investigation. The earlier reports filed were biased and prejudiced as the members were those against whom he had filed complaints earlier.

Wadia further said that the audit committees formed were constituted in violation of the Companies Act and the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements.

In his first letter on January 6, Wadia had explained why he named each of the three directors. According to him, Robb - who was on audit committees of Tata Steel Europe and Tata Steel - received remuneration of 190,000 pounds.

Munjee, who was appointed as trustee of the Tata Trust, who would be classified as the promoter and hence; Munjee could not have been an independent director, Wadia said.

Wadia further said that independent directors were allowed remuneration of Rs 1 lakh as per the Companies Act.

Wadia was removed as an independent director from boards of Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals in December last year. Wadia was a staunch supporter of the ex-chairman of Tata Group, Cyrus Mistry.