Tata Trusts battle: Venu Srinivasan named life trustee before end of term

The renewal marks his transition to life trusteeship, cementing his position within one of the most influential charitable trusts of the Tata Group

A day before industrialist Venu Srinivasan’s (pictured) three-year term as a trustee at Sir Dorabji Tata Trust was to end, his renewal has been approved. While a few trustees had sent their approvals in the past two days, the remaining responded Wednesday morning in a unanimous decision to renew his term, paving the way for Srinivasan’s life trusteeship at SDTT. 

Srinivasan, whose current term at SDTT is till October 23, 2025, is being reappointed as a life trustee, sources said. Another key renewal—that of Mehli Mistry — is about to come up this week. Mistry’s term at both Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust — two core trusts with a majority holding in Tata Sons — is coming to an end on October 28, 2025. 

 

Tata Trusts had approved lifetime trusteeship at a meeting held shortly after Ratan Tata’s passing last year. However, the opinion is divided among the trustees on the interpretation of the resolution on life trusteeship. While one side pointed out that the term of a trustee must be renewed prior to getting a lifetime trustee status, another group at the Trusts suggested that lifetime trusteeship would come automatically after the end of any trustee’s term. Lawyers have been at work to analyse the fineprint of last year’s resolution on life trusteeship. 

The October 2024 resolution had stated that ‘’on expiry of any tenure of any trustee, that trustee will be reappointed by the concerned trust without any limit of tenure of such re-appointment, and in accordance with law’’, a source explained. 

The development around rene­w­al of trustees’ term and granting them life trusteeship assumes signi­f­icance as the Union government has stepped in to resolve the differe­nces in the organisation and to prev­ent any instability in the Tata Gro­up. Recently, there was a meeting of top Tata Sons and Tata Trusts representatives with Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The meeting was held at Shah’s New Delhi residence. 

The issue of a possible listing of Tata Sons, the holding company of the salt-to-software group, is also being linked to the latest corporate battle that has unfolded. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had asked Tata Sons to list by September 30, 2025, under its scale-based regulatory framework introduced in October 2022. Tata Sons was given three years to list, however that deadline has passed. 

Making the situation complex is the divergent views on listing of Tata Sons, where Tata Trusts holds 66 per cent share. 

While on paper, Tata Sons and Tata Trusts have so far expressed their interest in remaining private, some within the organisation are learnt to be reviewing their stand. And Shapoorji Pallonji group, with 18 per cent in Tata Sons, is keen that Tata Sons goes for a public listing. Recently, it reiterated its position on the matter.