In Conversation With Sumant B Mathur, General Manager (Law), Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)

Many Congratulations on featuring in BW Legal World’s General Counsel 100 list for the year 2020. We’d love to know about your journey so far, most memorable experiences, and your thoughts on receiving this Award.

My journey so far in SAIL is of 30 years which has given me many memorable experiences in the professional field. My most satisfying experiences include winning a series of litigations, at multiple fora, at multiple locations, which finally paved way for an Auction of a private Steel Plant under the aegis of Delhi High Court. SAIL won the Auction(Rs 209 Crore) and added to its Kitty, a Steel Plant in a state where it had no production facility i.e. Uttar Pradesh. Another satisfying experience was winning an International Arbitration with Award in favour of SAIL amounting to Rs 1100 Crores.(One thousand and one hundred crores). I had been fortunate that my work in SAIL has been recognised well and I have received award seven times during my career in SAIL. It is indeed true that award and recognition provide at impetus to work harder as it not only increases one’s self-worth but also prestige of the recipient in the public eye. I am thankful to “BW Legal World” for conferring the “Top General Counsel” Award on me.

What do you attribute your success to? What would you say has helped you emerge as a top General Counsel in your industry?

In my view, there is no shortcut to success. One must apply himself fully to the work so as to ensure the planned results. “Never say die” approach has helped me in emerging as an achiever resulting in my being recognised as “Top General Counsel” by Business World.

What advice would you have for others who want to set off in a similar direction?

My advice to those who want to set off in a similar direction is that one must maintain throughout the career, professional integrity and dedication to their work and organisation. Above, coupled with updated legal knowledge and good interpersonal relations will take aspirants / General Counsels to greater heights.

Would you please share with our readers the array of work you handle at your organization. What is your in-house team size, and would you please allow us a little peek into your routine at work?

Today I hold the position of General Manager (Law) in SAIL being posted in the Corporate Office at Delhi. The span of work and control is pan India, and in fact, for international contracts/issues, it stretches beyond the national frontiers. SAIL being a multi-locational and multi-faceted company (having facilities for steel making, mining, shipping, power generation, oxygen generation, township and municipal service, airport and aircrafts, hospital and zoo etc) has legal issues in almost all fields of law and, therefore, gives an opportunity to handle issues/litigations at almost all the Fora where litigation takes place. I am supported by Law Dept/Team of Law Officers at 13 locations across the country. The numbers of Law Officers in the team crosses 60. My work includes advising the organisation on all legal issues involved in day-to-day decision making, strategise the approach in litigation, deciding the counsel who would represent SAIL in strategic cases, analysing the merit in high-value Arbitrations both domestic and international, advising my team on issues referred to me, advising the top management on pro-active steps for settling issues outside court and in day-today business of the Company. I also work as interface between the Minisrty of Steel and SAIL on legal issues. As for my routine at work, my day starts early when activities planned for the day are fine-tuned in the light of the scenario of the day.

The office keeps me busy throughout the day for various references from within and outside the Law Dept and also from outside SAIL. The thinking and strategizing part of the work started only after the usual working hours of the organisation are over and it stretches upto 7:30 pm after which the routine administrative work is done till usually 8:00 pm. The time spent in travelling from home to office and back is utilised in telephonic communications. Thus the working hours go well beyond 12 hours a day.

What have been your key learnings as the legal gatekeepers of your company from the year past and what are your predictions for the future?

The key learning as the legal gate keeper of my company is that Law Officer must be ready for fire-fighting as industry and conditions therein are dynamic. Full Legal support is to be provided to the Line Managers to enable them take dynamic business decisions. In future, it is expected that the role of Law Dept in any business/industry would be more prominent and would eventually be at the pivot of the business activity. Thus, the job of a General Counsel of a company would attain a very critical position in the company and may be in coming times, Law Officer would be a member of the Board of the Company.

Any significant legislation or decision of the top court that has been a welcome change or has been rather mistimed in your opinion.

Decision of the top court in the matter of “Common Cause” deciding that any mining activity carried out by an organisation during the period of deemed extension of mining lease and period of non-extension of Environmental Clearances held to be illegal, has hit the mining and Steel industry, very hard. The Governments who were tardy and lethargic in timely renewal of mining leases or modifying the Mining Plan to increase the output from a mine, or in granting Environmental clearances have been unjustly rewarded as the Govts. are now imposing penalty on the mineral extracted during the said timeperiod. Since the period is long, SAIL has been fastened with enormous financial liability running into thousands of crores.

An experience, matter or person that left a lasting impression on you.

The lasting impression on me has been cast by the high standards of integrity and devotion to duty by my senior Law officers who possessed such wonderful qualities of head and heart and exceptional professional expertise.

Company Law Departments of the future: LegalTech tools that are transforming the traditional methods of in-house legal work in India.

In SAIL we have developed in-house, a portal for case management where entire MIS ( with all conceivable permutations and combinations) can be generated from the data fed in and updated regularly. This has become an important Management Tool. Under this system, endeavour is being made that for all court matters/arbitrations, the dealing officer and the Advocate would be alerted over email and SMS one week before the date of hearing so that no date of hearing is either missed out or SAIL is found wanting for any activity/action directed by the court.

What keeps you busy when you’re not working? Any favourite book or movie/series that you'd like to recommend to our readers.

When not working, to de-stress, I indulge in light reading on varied subjects, or go out for a walk or enter into chit-chat /light banters with my close friends.

Any company law department initiatives highlighting the company's forethought for its employees, customers, suppliers during these turbulent times?

SAIL has during the pandemic resorted to the practice of work from home for majority of its employees. Since all the employees and their family/ dependents are fully covered for medical expenses, there is no need for any fresh entitlements on this count. SAIL has made arrangements in Delhi to provide all medicines including COVID medicines required by its employees to be home delivered in Delhi/NCR. Besides, since Steel making process requires a continuous flow of Oxygen, all Steel Plants of SAIL have Oxygen Plants of varying capacities working in its locations. SAIL is, as a gesture of goodwill, providing free of cost, liquid medical oxygen, to the Government by running its Oxygen plants at full capacity 24x7.