 "Both Neville Tata (left) and Bhaskar Bhat have been inducted for a three-year term")
The trustees of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT), one of the two main trusts of the group, on Tuesday unanimously appointed chairman Noel Tata’s son Neville Tata and Bhaskar Bhat, a Tata group veteran, as trustees for a period of three years. Analysts described Neville’s induction into Dorbaji Trust as a sign of Noel Tata consolidating his grip over the Tata group. Neville, 32, is the business head of Trent Hypermarket and is already a trustee on several Tata Trusts boards.
Despite a recent resolution by Tata Trusts on lifetime trusteeship, both Neville Tata and Bhaskar Bhat have been inducted with a three-year term. Even industrialist Venu Srinivasan, has been formally appointed trustee at Dorabji Tata Trust for a tenure of three years, within weeks of his renewal as a life trustee. The Board decided to appoint Srinivasan as trustee for a period of three years with effect from November 12, in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and to designate him as vice chairman of SDTT, a statement by the Trust said. According to a source, the Maharashtra government issued an Ordinance recently mandating a fixed term of up to five years, at a time, for trusteeship.
Tata Trusts is a 66 per cent shareholder in Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt to software conglomerate. Neville’s name was proposed by Darius Khambata, a veteran lawyer and a trustee at Tata Trusts trustee, and was unanimously approved. Bhat’s name was proposed by vice chairman Vijay Singh and was supported by all trustees including Prameet Jhaveri. Neville was earlier appointed as a trustee of smaller trusts. The new appointments will come into effect on November 12.
Incidentally, approval for Neville’s induction came a day before Noel’s birthday.
While proposing Neville’s name, Khambata said it was former chairman Ratan Tata’s dream to induct Neville on the Trusts and groom him as a successor, said a source close to the development. Neville is expected to be inducted as a trustee at Sir Ratan Tata Trust as well at a meeting scheduled for January 2026.
The trustees also disbanded the trust’s executive committee. Tata Trusts CEO Siddharth Sharma will now report directly to the chairman.
Sir Dorabji Tata Trust holds about 28 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, while Sir Ratan Tata Trust holds about 24 per cent stake.
Within a year of Ratan Tata’s passing, differences among the trustees surfaced over many issues including sharing of Tata Sons board agenda by nominee directors. The rift widened in September this year when former trustee Mehli Mistry, a close confidant of late Ratan Tata, voted against the reappointment of Vijay Singh, vice-chairman of Tata Trusts and former defence secretary, as Trusts’ nominee on the Tata Sons board.
In the same Tata Trusts meeting, Noel Tata had opposed Mistry’s nomination to the board of Tata Sons as a Trusts nominee. Currently, there are two Trusts nominees on the Tata Sons board—Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan.
Soon after the tension at the Tata Trusts board meeting, renewal of trustees’ tenure turned into a contentious issue. In October, Venu Srinivasan’s term was renewed by all trustees but when it was the turn of Mehli Mistry’s term renewal in the last week of October, three trustees—Noel Tata, Srinivasan and Singh—voted against him.
Three trustees-- Khambata, Jhaveri and Jehangir (chairman and CEO of Jehangir Hospital)—approved renewing Mistry’s term.
To resolve the crisis at Tata Trusts, Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had to intervene in October. They met top representatives of Tata Sons and Tata Trusts to discuss the matter. The ministers are learnt to have advised stability at the Tata group considering its importance in the Indian economy.
The tension at Tata Trusts coincided with the mandate of the Reserve Bank of India on listing of Tata Sons by September 30, 2025, under its scale-based regulatory framework introduced in October 2022. Tata Sons had sought an exemption from listing last year. Even as Tata Trusts advised Tata Sons to engage with RBI to prevent a public listing, the SP group, which holds about 18 per cent in Tata Sons, recently reiterated its position pushing for a listing of the Tata Group’s holding company.
