TATA Docomo case adjourned till February 2

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The bitter Rs 7,250 crore battle between the Tatas and DoComo has been adjourned till February 2, 2017. The hearing started on Wednesday and the Tata counsel presented his argument but could not complete because of paucity of time which led to the deferred date.

Tata Teleservices’ financial struggles had prompted the Japanese company to seek an exit. Under the agreement, the Tatas had offered to return half of Docomo’s original amount at the end of five years if the partners wanted to part ways but later did not do so citing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations. Docomo filed for international arbitration and won an award of $1.17 billion.

During the Wednesday’s hearing, the Tata counsel showed letters where they had asked Docomo to head for RBI for resolution. The judge also mentioned that if there was an indemnity clause, then Tatas should abide by it.


Docomo has moved a local court to implement the $1.17 billion arbitral award, but the Tatas have said they can’t pay, again citing the RBI rules. In order to show their bonafides, the Tatas deposited a sum in excess of Rs 8,000 crores in court.

According to the annual report filing of FY 16, promoters Tata Sons and NTT Docomo owns 36.17% and 26.5 % in Tata Teleservices. Last week in an EGM, the company removed Cyrus Mistry from its board by more than 80 percent of the votes. The telecom business has been one of the many causes of conflict between the Cyrus Mistry camo and the Ratan Tata camo in the last two months.