Venu Srinivasan obliges request to quit Bai Hirabai Trust, Vijay Singh declines

Tata Trusts Chief Executive Siddharth Sharma did not respond to a mail from The Indian Express on the development. Srinivasan said he had no comments, and Singh did not respond to calls and messages seeking clarification.

Mistry has contended that the trust mandates trustees to be permanent residents of Mumbai, and belong to the Parsi Zoroastrian faith.

He claimed that the two of them do not satisfy these criteria and sought regulatory intervention, including a formal inquiry and sworn declarations from all trustees confirming their eligibility.

Governing framework

Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution was established by a deed of trust dated December 7, 1923, and has had the same Board of Trustees as that of Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

Tata sources said former Chief Justice of India HJ Kania had taken the view that there was no legal or doctrinal bar preventing non-Zoroastrians from being inducted as the trusts’s members. In his opinion, its governing framework did not impose any explicit restriction barring such appointments, allowing for a broader and more inclusive interpretation of eligibility for trusteeship.

In line with this, RK Krishnakumar, who was a Director of Tata Sons and several Tata companies, was subsequently appointed as a trustee in the year 2000, during the tenure of Ratan Tata as the head of the Tata Trusts. This was seen as a practical affirmation of the earlier view, demonstrating that the trust was willing to adopt a more expansive approach in its governance practices.

While the circumstances surrounding Srinivasan’s exit from the Bai Hirabai Trust suggest that not all is well among trustees of the Tata Trusts, a Tata source said the trust is a small entitity without any stake or voting rights in Tata firms.

There was no need for the trust’s management to ask them to quit after Mistry filed the complaint with the Charity Commissioner, a source said.

Following Srinivasan’s exit, all members of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Trust board — except Vijay Singh — are of the Zoroastrian faith. It’s part of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, which is currently headed by Noel Tata.

Tata Sons chair’s extension call

Meanwhile, the board of Tata Sons, expected to meet in June, is likely to decide on an extension for Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran. Tata Trusts board is expected to meet before the Tata Sons board meeting, sources said.

There is currently no proposal from either Noel Tata or any other trustee to introduce a truncated tenure for the chairman, nor to appoint a MD or CEO alongside the chairman at Tata Sons, they added.

“As far as I know, the Tata Sons board will continue to back Chandrasekaran for a third term,” said a top-level source in the group.

“No director can veto that. I believe the issues raised by Noel Tata are best replied to and discussed in detail at a board meeting as these issues were raised at the board and not through any communication outside the board,” the source said.

“The dignity of the Chairman of Tata Sons must be maintained and he can never be considered a subordinate, whose explanation is being demanded,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

On February 24, a decision on the third extension for Chandrasekaran was deferred after he requested the board of the Tata Group holding company to postpone the matter as due to disagreements in the board meeting.

While his second tenure will end only in February 2027, Tata Sons directors had earlier cleared the third extension.

However, differences came to the fore in the board meeting as Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata raised concerns over the losses in some of the group’s companies, according to the sources.