Tata Trusts sought legal opinion on Vijay Singh’s remuneration after auditor flag

Singh lost his position on the Tata Sons board as a nominee director of the Tata Trusts when 4 out of 7 trustees on the Tata Trust board voted against his continuation.

Tata Trusts had sought a legal opinion on the income and remuneration of Vijay Singh, one of its trustees and till recently a nominee director on the board of Tata Sons Ltd, after the issue was flagged by the Trusts’ auditors in May this year, according to documents and filings reviewed by Moneycontrol.

People familiar with the matter said the legal opinion, taken from senior advocate Percy Pardiwala,  cleared the commissions and remuneration earned by Singh, concluding that the income was legal, compliant with laws and governance norms, and did not violate trust rules or nominee-director obligations. The opinion found no irregularity in the payments received by Singh from Tata Sons.

The question had centred on whether commissions and other payments received by Singh from Tata Sons should accrue to him personally or be deposited with the Trusts, given his status as a trustee and nominee director.

In a communication dated May 28, Dilip J Thakkar, partner at Jayantilal Thakkar & Co, conveyed to one of the trustees that remuneration received by Singh from Tata Sons in his capacity as a nominee director should be credited to the Trusts’ account. A legal opinion was then sought.

Moneycontrol has reached out to Tata Sons ,Tata Trusts, Vijay Singh, Percy Pardiwala and  Dilip J Thakkar for comment. The story will be updated if they respond.

Rift among trustees

The episode — the communication from the auditor and the subsequent legal opinion — appears emblematic of the rift between two sections of the Trustees in recent months.

Singh lost his position on the Tata Sons board as a nominee director of the Tata Trusts when four out of seven trustees on the Tata Trust board voted against his continuation.  He remains on the board of the Tata Trusts. Subsequently Mehli Mistry — a long-time confidant of the late Ratan Tata — stepped down from the Tata Trusts after his reappointment as a director was opposed by a number of other directors including Venu Srinivasan and Chairman Noel Tata.

Singh associated with Tata Sons, group companies

A consolidated statement of remuneration and drawings accessed from filings and public records shows that Singh received a total of Rs 20.13 crore between 2013–14 and 2024–25 from Tata Sons and several Tata group aerospace and defence companies where he served as a director or held senior roles.

The bulk of Singh’s earnings came from Tata Sons Private Limited, where he has served two separate tenures as a director — between June 2013 and July 2018, and again from February 2022, with his current term running until September 2025. Payments from Tata Sons aggregated to Rs 15.89 crore, largely in the form of commissions, with annual payouts rising in recent years. Singh earned Rs 2.8 crore in 2022–23, Rs 3 crore in 2023–24 and Rs 3.2 crore in 2024–25 from Tata Sons, the filings show.

Apart from Tata Sons, Singh also earned remuneration from Tata Advanced Systems Ltd, Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Ltd and Tata Sikorsky Aerospace Ltd during the period when he was associated with these companies.

His total earnings from Tata Advanced Systems stood at Rs 3.52 crore, comprising commissions and other payments between 2018–19 and 2023–24. Payments from Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures and Tata Sikorsky Aerospace amounted to Rs 31 lakh and Rs 41 lakh, respectively, over the same period.

These payments were not the subject of auditor comments and the legal opinion.

Singh has held multiple strategic roles across Tata group companies, particularly in the aerospace and defence vertical, which has expanded rapidly over the past decade through joint ventures with global majors such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky. His directorships in these entities largely concluded in 2023, while his association with Tata Sons continued till September 2025.

The disclosures indicate that Singh did not draw any remuneration from Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited during his tenure there. He also did not receive any payments from the Tata Cancer Care Foundation or the Assam Cancer Care Foundation, despite holding directorships in these entities since 2019.

Notably, Venu Srinivasan, who is also a Tata Trusts nominee and serves on the boards of several Tata group companies, including Tata Sons, has not taken any remuneration or commission so far, the people cited above said.