Action around trustee term kicks in at Tata Trusts amid ongoing tension

Venu Srinivasan's term up for renewal, Mehli Mistry next in line

In the midst of heightened tension within Tata Trusts, a circular seeking renewal of a trustee’s term is being watched with interest, according to a source in the know. Ever since the rift between the trustees surfaced in September, the first case of a renewal has come up with industrialist Venu Srinivasan, vice-chairman of Tata Trusts, entering the last week of his three-year term as trustee at Sir Dorabji Tata Trust—one of the two main trusts with the largest shareholding in Tata Sons. Tata Trusts has now sent a circular to all its trustees to seek their approval for Srinivasan’s reappointment by the end of his term, October 23, it is learnt. Srinivasan, who’s also a trustee at another core trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, is a nominee director on the board of Tata Sons—the holding firm of the salt-to-software conglomerate. 

While Srinivasan’s renewal is already on the table, another is expected to come up shortly. Mehli Mistry, a close associate of Ratan Tata, is approaching the end of his current term at both the top trusts—Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Mistry, who’s related to the Shapoorji Pallonji family, had supported Ratan Tata during the long-drawn corporate war that followed Cyrus Mistry’s ouster as Tata Sons chairman in 2016. 

Mehli Mistry, who’s allegedly at the centre of the Tata Trusts divide, is on the opposite side of Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata and the two vice-chairmen — Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh. According to sources, Mistry’s present term at the two trusts would end on October 28, and a circular seeking his reappointment is expected to be issued sometime this week. 

Tata Trusts did not respond to the queries sent by Business Standard on this matter.

 

The renewal of trustees’ tenures is catching attention for several reasons. 

First, against the backdrop of a divided house at Tata Trusts, a consensus of the trustees will be a must for any reappointment or renewal, at least two sources aware of the issues said. Even if there’s a single objection, the reappointment can be blocked.  Therefore, even if renewal of trustees is a mundane matter in normal times, it is now being interpreted in different ways. Second, these renewals, if trustees approve, would result in life trusteeship of Srinivasan and Mistry. Tata Trusts had approved lifetime trusteeship at a meeting held shortly after Ratan Tata’s passing last year. However, sources pointed out that the term of a trustee has to be renewed prior to getting a lifetime trustee status. 

So far, there’s been no rejection by trustees when a term is up for renewal or reappointment. The last reappointment at Tata Trusts was that of Noel Tata in January 2025, when he became a trustee for life at Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, according to a source. He’s also a trustee for life at Sir Ratan Tata Trust. 

Besides Noel Tata, the board of trustees at Sir Dorabji Tata Trust includes industrialist Venu Srinivasan, former bureaucrat Vijay Singh, banker Pramit Jhaveri, businessman Mehli Mistry and senior lawyer Darius Khambata. On the board of the other core trust, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the trustees include Tata, Srinivasan, Singh, Mistry and Khambata. This trust also has Jehangir HC Jehangir, chairman of Jehangir Hospital in Pune, and Jimmy N Tata, younger brother of Ratan Tata, on its board.  

The developments surrounding the renewals of Srinivasan and Mistry could show the way forward for Tata Trusts, which had resorted to voting among trustees last month to remove Vijay Singh, a former defence secretary, as a nominee director at Tata Sons. This revealed a sharp split and power struggle among the trustees, prompting the Union government to step in. Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman met the top representatives of Tata Sons and Tata Trusts in a move to prevent instability at the Tata Group.

 

The development also assumes significance at a time when the various stakeholders have contrasting views on a possible listing of Tata Sons, where Tata Trusts--a charitable organisation--holds 66 per cent. Shapoorji Pallonji group is the second largest shareholder with around 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons. The Shapoorji group had recently reiterated its position in a public statement in favour of public listing of Tata Sons. Both Tata Sons and Tata Trusts are on paper against a listing. However, some opinions are learnt to be changing on the matter. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), meanwhile, has remained silent even after the September 30 deadline for Tata Sons listing lapsed. The RBI had, three years ago, asked Tata Sons for a public listing by September 30, 2025, under its scale-based regulatory framework that classified non-banking finance companies into four layers based on various criteria such as size and risk.