Mumbai, Nov 26 (DHNS): Cyrus Mistry was on Friday ousted as chairman of Tata Steel, one of the oldest and biggest companies of the Tata Group, and replaced by independent director O P Bhatt.

Tata Steel is the third Tata Group company to replace Mistry as chairman. Tata Consultancy Services had recently announced the appointment of Ishaat Hussain as chairman, and Tata Global Beverages had named Harish Bhatt in place of Mistry.

Bhatt was appointed an independent director of Tata Steel on June 10, 2013. He has served as the chairman of State Bank of India and is an independent director on several boards, including Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Hindustan Unilever. The Tata Steel board has also decided to convene an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Mistry and independent director Nusli Wadia as directors on the board of the company. The EGM will be held on December 21.

“The board appointed the independent director as the chairman keeping in mind the principles of good corporate governance and to provide impartial leadership to the company in its preparation and conduct of the EGM.

This decision 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,” a Tata Steel statement to the stock exchanges said.

The Mistry camp, however, reacted sharply and came down heavily on the leadership of Tata Group interim chairman Ratan Tata.

“We believe that this unprecedented erosion of core Tata values is seriously damaging Brand Tata. Each time one thinks the current standard of corporate governance in the Tata Group-listed companies under the leadership of the interim chairman cannot hit a newer low, one has been belied,” sources close to Mistry said.