Will Mehli Mistry stay or Noel Tata prevail? Big vote at Tata Trusts amid growing rift

On one side are Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan, and Vijay Singh, who are opposed to Mistry's reappointment. On the other are Darius Khambata, Pramit Jhaveri, and Jehangir HC Jehangir, who are backing him.

The Tata Trusts board is set to decide on the reappointment of trustee Mehli Mistry to the Sir Dorabji Tata and Sir Ratan Tata trusts, which together own 51 percent of Tata Sons. The vote has divided the trustees into two camps.

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On one side are Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan, and Vijay Singh, who are opposed to Mistry's reappointment. On the other are Darius Khambata, Pramit Jhaveri, and Jehangir HC Jehangir, who are backing him. The resolution for Mistry's reappointment was moved by Siddharth Sharma, CEO of the Tata Trusts.

Adding to the tension, Mistry - a longtime confidant of Ratan Tata - reportedly gave conditional approval for Srinivasan's own reappointment, a move that has sparked fresh legal debate within the Trusts.

Mistry, who has served as a trustee since 2022, shares long-standing business and personal ties with the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) family. The relationship between the two groups deteriorated after Cyrus Mistry, a member of the SP family, was ousted as Tata Sons chairman in 2016, setting off one of India Inc.'s most high-profile corporate battles.

Sources quoted by Business Standard said the current lack of consensus over Mistry's reappointment could mark an "unprecedented development", potentially deepening existing rifts within the Trusts.

As reported by The Economic Times, the appointment and renewal of trustees have traditionally been decided unanimously. That convention was broken in September, when the Trusts voted by majority to remove former defence secretary Vijay Singh as nominee director on the Tata Sons board - the first such move since Ratan Tata's passing.