Tata Trusts trustees accuse Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh of undermining board resolutions

Senior Sir Dorabji Tata Trust trustees have accused Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh of undermining board resolutions by publicly supporting a Tata Sons listing. The dispute highlights growing differences within Tata Trusts over ownership, regulatory requirements and the company’s unlisted status

New Delhi: Senior trustees of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust have accused fellow trustees Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh of undermining board resolutions and breaching their fiduciary duties by publicly supporting the listing of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group, according to a report.

NDTV Profit reported that the letter — signed by SDTT trustees Noel N Tata, Darius J. Khambata, Neville N. Tata and Bhaskar Bhat — marks an escalation in internal differences within Tata Trusts over the future ownership and listing status of Tata Sons.

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The trustees said keeping Tata Sons unlisted had been the settled position of the Trusts and the company for years. The Tata Sons board had unanimously resolved in March 2024 to retain the company’s unlisted status, while trustees of SDTT and Sir Ratan Tata Trust unanimously reiterated the position in July 2025 and agreed to engage with the Reserve Bank of India on the matter, according to the report.

Moreover, the trustees said the July 2025 resolutions had not been rescinded and criticised Srinivasan and Singh for not seeking a reconsideration of those decisions or bringing their changed views on a potential listing before the trustees for collective deliberation. Their public statements supporting a listing undermined the Trusts’ resolutions and could also affect Tata Sons’ pending application with the RBI.

The trustees also referred to a September 28 proposal to merge Tata Electronics Systems Solutions Private Limited and Tata Consulting Engineers with Tata Sons as one possible route to help the company avoid the RBI’s principal business criteria for non-banking financial companies while retaining its unlisted status.

The report showed that the Tata Sons board had asked the Trusts to explore all available options and not listing alone to comply with the RBI’s communications.

“The Tata Trusts did what the Board of Tata Sons asked of them,” the trustees said in the letter and defended their efforts to find alternatives to a public listing.

The developments highlight growing differences among trustees over whether Tata Sons should remain unlisted or pursue a public listing as it seeks to address regulatory requirements set by the RBI.