Mumbai, Nov. 25: Tata Steel today removed Cyrus Mistry as chairman and will hold an extraordinary general meeting on December 21 to remove him and independent director Nusli Wadia as directors.

O.P. Bhatt, independent director on the board of Tata Steel and former head of the SBI, has been elected as the chairman of the board until the outcome of the EGM, the company said.

"The board appointed the independent director as the chairman keeping in mind principles of good corporate governance," it said.

Bhatt also serves as an independent director on several boards, including Standard Chartered Bank Plc, TCS and Hindustan Unilever.

Mistry was replaced by a majority vote with immediate effect with six directors voting in favour of his removal.

Apart from Bhatt and Mistry, the 10-member board of Tata Steel includes Koushik Chatterjee, group executive director (finance and corporate), Ishaat Hussain, D.K. Mehrotra, T.V. Narendran, managing director of Tata Steel India and South East Asia, Andrew M. Robb (independent director), Jacobus Schraven (independent director), Mallika Srinivasan (independent director), Subodh Bhargava (independent director) and Nusli Wadia (independent director).

This is the third listed Tata group company where Mistry is being removed as the chairman of the board.

The move follows Mistry's ouster in October from the board of Tata Sons, the holding company of Tata Group firms, after the company criticised his performance.

Tata Consultancy Services soon followed suit, while the board of Tata Global Beverages (TGBL) took a similar decision on November 15.

Mistry camp livid

Sources close to Mistry slammed today's decision. "We believe this unprecedented erosion of core Tata values is seriously damaging Brand Tata. Each time one thinks the current standard of corporate governance in Tata Group listed companies under the leadership of the interim chairman cannot hit a newer low, one has been belied.

"Just minutes before a convened and pre-scheduled board meeting, a circular resolution replacing the chairman for the meeting is said to have been initiated.

"Those involved are representatives of Tata Sons, those drawing large remuneration from other Tata Trustee-controlled companies, and an "independent" director, who is the wife of a newly-inducted Tata trustee, who was also recently nominated director of Tata Sons,'' they said.

In a regulatory filing with the bourses, Tata Steel said that its board at a meeting held on November 11, had taken note of the leadership changes at Tata Sons and the special notice and requisition received from the principal shareholder to convene an extra-ordinary general meeting and place a resolution, for the removal of Mistry as a director of the company.

The statement said: "The decision (to appoint Bhatt as interim chairman) was taken to also ensure stability to the company and in the larger interest of Tata Steel's stakeholders, including but not limited to employees, trading partners, financial stakeholders and local community around its operations.''

Indian Hotels

Tata Sons has asked shareholders of Indian Hotels - the company that runs Taj Group of Hotels - to remove Cyrus Mistry as director of the company as he has caused "enormous harm" to the group as well as Indian Hotels and its stakeholders.

In a resolution moved by the holding company of Tata Group for consideration of an EGM on December 20, it said Mistry after being removed as chairman of Tata Sons had "made certain unsubstantiated allegations, which cast aspersions not only on Tata Sons and its board of directors, but also on the Tata Group as a whole, of which Indian Hotels is an integral part".

JLR promise

Tata Motors' owned Jaguar Land Rover today announced ambitious investment plans leading to the creation of thousands of jobs in the UK as part of its efforts to double its output by 2020.

JLR chief executive Ralf Speth confirmed the luxury car manufacturer's aim of doubling its output to 1 million cars by 2020, which will include a big spike in the production of electric vehicles in Britain.

"We have a greater ambition. Why should we challenge ourselves to build more than a million cars. If we double the volume of our cars we can double the workforce. We can only do this in partnership," Speth said at an automotive sector meeting at Warwick University in the West Midlands region of England on Thursday night.

He also indicated that the company was keen to bring the research and development and production of electric car batteries to Coventry and Warwickshire in the region.