Mumbai, Dec 21 (IANS): Industrialist Nusli Wadia on Wednesday said he will not attend the extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Tata Steel where he is expected to be removed as an Independent Director of the company.

The development comes on the day when Tata Steel has convened an EGM to decide whether or not to remove Wadia as an Independent Director on its Board.

The agenda of the EGM was to take shareholders' approval for the removal of Tata Sons ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry and Independent Director Wadia from its Board of Directors.

"What is at stake now is not whether I am removed or not but the fate of the very institution of the Independent Director that has been created in law and by SEBI to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders," Wadia said in a letter to the shareholders of Tata Steel.

"It is in your hands to vote with your conscience for what is right for your company and more important for the institution of Independent Directors," the letter read.

"I have chosen not to attend the meeting as I understand that recent meetings held of other Tata Companies have been inappropriately and shamefully stage-managed by the requisitionist controlling the entry into the hall as also in the selection and choice of the speakers as never before seen in Indian corporate history."