Nani Palkhivala To Step Down From All Tata Boards

Nani Palkhivala, veteran lawyer and a doyen of the Tata group, is finally stepping down from the boards of almost all the Tata companies he was associated with, for health reasons.

The octogenarian who was India's ambassador to the US in the late seventies will not be seeking re-election to the boards of Tata Steel, Tata Engineering and Indian Hotels, but will continue to be a non-executive director of Tata Infotech.

About two months ago, it became clear that Palkhivala would not seek re-election to the board of the erstwhile Tata company, The Associated Cement Companies (ACC), of which he was the chairman for over two-and-a-half decades.

 

In 1997, he relinquished the chairmanship but was nominated as chairman emeritus by the ACC board in view of his contribution to the company.

"Palkhivala has been a great legal brain. But his health over the last couple of years has curtailed his involvement with the group," a close associate of Palkhivala said.

His failing health has not allowed him to attend most board meetings over the last year in companies of which he has been a director.

The feisty lawyer's gradual withdrawal from the group to which he was a legal advisor will mark the end of an era at the Tatas.

Palkhivala is widely seen as one of the few remaining men who were associated with group patriarch JRD Tata.

Only two others of that era -- JJ Bhabha (87) and Sharokh Sabavala (83) -- continue to sit on the boards of Tata companies.

Non-executive directors at Tata companies are supposed to retire when they become 75. The retirement age at Tata Sons, the group's holding company, was advanced last year from 75 to 70.

While Bhabha is a board member of Indian Hotels, Tata McGraw-Hill, Titan Industries and Tata Ltd, Sabavala sits on the board of group flagship Tata Steel.

Sabavala set an example in 1999 by being the first of the Tata Sons directors aged 75 or more to step down from the board of the holding company.

Subsequently, six more directors -- including Bhabha and Palkhivala -- also resigned from the company.

Palkhivala's most celebrated moment at the Tata group may have arrived in 1988 when he played an active role in staving off a bid by Bombay Dyeing chairman Nusli Wadia to raise his stake in ACC through a rights issue.

Palkhivala roped in his friend and Tata satrap, Darbari Seth, to make substantial equity investments through Tata Chemicals and Tata Tea.

But Palkhivala's relationship with the Tata group may have waned in recent years. He caused some embarrassment to the Tatas when in 1997 he proclaimed that ACC had never been a Tata company despite the group having been one of the company's original promoters.

This subsequently led to Palkhivala yielding ACC's chairmanship to Ratan Tata's close associate Pallonji Mistry. ACC then said it was "closely associated with the Tatas".

For years, Palkhivala had a room at Bombay House. He gave it up recently -- perhaps the most poignant sign that his time with the group had drawn to a close.