Mumbai, Oct 24 

In a surprise move, industrial conglomerate Tata Sons on Monday has replaced Cyrus P. Mistry as its Chairman and named Ratan N. Tata as the interim chairman of the company.

The decision was taken at the company's board meeting, a company statement said here. A committee has been formed to select the next chairman within four months.

"The committee comprises Ratan N. Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Amit Chandra, Ronen Sen and Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, as per the criteria in the Articles of Association of Tata Sons. The committee has been mandated to complete the selection process in four months," the statement said.

However, the company did not cite any reason behind the move.

Mistry, 48, born in Ireland, had taken over as Chairman of Tata Sons four years ago, in December 2012.