The National Company Law Tribunal on Monday dismissed ousted Tata Sons Chairperson Cyrus Mistry’s petition accusing the conglomerate of mismanagement and oppression. Mistry’s family firms will now move the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Mint reported.

Cyrus Investments Private Limited and Sterling Investments Private Limited had sought relaxation of the criteria that shareholders must possess at least 10% shares of a firm to file a petition alleging mismanagement and oppression.

The tribunal’s rejection hinders Mistry’s company from making its case accusing Tata Sons of oppressing its minority shareholders’ interests. On March 6, the National Company Law Tribunal had said that Mistry had failed to convince the court that his petition against Tata Sons Ltd was maintainable.

On February 6, shareholders of Tata Sons had voted to remove Mistry from the post of director. Mistry had stepped down from all Tata Group companies on December 19, alleging that Ratan Tata had staged “an illegal coup” the day he was sacked from his post.

The holding company had accused Mistry of misleading the 2011 selection committee set up to appoint Ratan Tata’s successor. On January 12, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was named the new chairperson of Tata Sons.