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Informist, Thursday, May 7, 2026

MUMBAI – The Bombay High Court Thursday refused to grant an urgent hearing on a petition seeking a stay on a meeting of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust's board of trustees, scheduled for Friday, to discuss key governance issues, among other things. Some media reports have claimed that the board of trustees is also likely to vote on a resolution seeking to remove TVS Group Chairman and Tata Trusts Vice-chairman Venu Srinivasan from the board of Tata Sons Pvt. Ltd., the holding company of the Tata Group.

Thursday, a petition seeking to stay the meeting of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust was mentioned before a division bench of Chief Justice S. Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad for urgent hearing. The bench found no merit in the petitioner's plea for an immediate hearing, Janak Dwarkadas, counsel for the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, told Informist.

The petition by Tulsiram Patilkhede, a resident of Thane, also sought compliance with Section 30A(2) of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950, which caps the number of life trustees on the board of a trust to one quarter of the total number of trustees. The Sir Ratan Tata Trust currently has six trustees, of whom three--Jimmy Naval Tata, Jehangir H.C. Jehangir, and Noel Naval Tata--serve as life trustees.

 

Patilkhede's petition states the cap on the number of life trustees was brought in by an amendment to the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act in September. Following this, he wrote in April to the board of Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the charity commissioner but failed to get a response. "No reply has been received by the petitioner or its advocate, nor has any enquiry been initiated," according to his petition.

The petition seeks a direction to the charity commissioner to ensure compliance with statutory provisions by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. It further seeks a stay on the trust adopting any resolution during Friday's meeting. The petition also seeks a declaration from the court that all decisions by the board since September are illegal.  End

 

Reported by Prateem Rohanekar

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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