Not inherited, but earned: Srinivasan, Singh target Noel in rebuttal to Khambata

Two Tata Trusts trustees, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, responded to their former colleague, Darius Khambata, questioning whether the fight over Tata Sons is truly about principle, or about “keeping control over Tata Sons by the current leaders of Tata Trusts.”

In a five-page joint letter on 11 November, Srinivasan and Singh wrote that Supreme Court lawyer Khambata’s account in his letter on 2 November was “incomplete in several important ways”.

Khambata, whose stint at Tata Trusts, which owns 65.9% of Tata Sons, ended on 9 November, had called Tata Sons directors' rebellion against Tata Trusts chair Noel Tata, as ‘a day that will live in infamy’.

“We ask, with respect, whether the real concern is the preservation of the Tata model, or the preservation of control over Tata Sons by the present leadership of Tata Trusts?” Singh and Srinivasan wrote to all Tata Trustees. “Where control becomes an end in itself, legitimate questions arise about the fiduciary duties of Trustees and the Trusts’ continued entitlement to that exemption,” they wrote. “Every Trustee should be prepared to examine them.”

The letter responds to Khambata’s letter, written when he decided not to seek another term at Tata Trusts. In it, he had criticized Srinivasan for ignoring the Trusts’ instructions the day before the 17 September Tata Sons board meeting. Srinivasan’s vote at that meeting helped chairman N. Chandrasekaran get a third term, starting 21 February next year.

Citing an earlier Supreme Court ruling in the Ratan Tata vs Cyrus Mistry case, Khambata wrote: “There cannot be two classes of trustees.”

“With respect, that is not what the judgment holds,” Srinivasan and Singh replied, adding that the ruling “did not extinguish a director’s fiduciary duty to the company under law, nor did it convert a Trust nominee into a delegate bound to vote the Trusts’ line irrespective of the interests of the company.”

Khambata had also called the Tata model a “national treasure” threatened by those who “would decouple Tata Sons from the Trusts.”

Singh and Srinivasan wrote that they had “seen no evidence for that proposition.”

The latest letter offers a timeline it says Khambata omitted. On 28 July 2025, all trustees had agreed to recommend reappointing Chandrasekaran for five more years, in a resolution Khambata wrote. In November 2025, Noel Tata’s son, Neville Tata, and former Titan CEO Bhaskar Bhat joined Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, “materially altering its balance”.

In February 2026, Chandrasekaran's reappointment was deferred after Noel objected. The result, the trustees wrote, was “seven months of uncertainty at the helm of India’s most consequential business group.”

They quoted Khambata’s own note to Chandrasekaran of 10 July 2025, which called the group’s plans “even more impressive than I’d imagined” and said, “RNT would have been elated.” They asked: “We would like to know what changed between that letter and the position you now take, other than the composition of the Trusts?”

On the 11 September 2025 vote not to renew retired defence secretary Vijay Singh as a Tata Sons director, which Khambata had said was meant “to secure stronger opposition to listing,” the two wrote: “a board seat was therefore determined by the need to secure a voting outcome and preserve the Trusts’ veto, rather than by the nominee’s merit.” As for Khambata calling their change of view on listing a betrayal, they wrote: “What you describe as betrayal is, in substance, a difference of view.”

The sharpest lines seem aimed at Noel Tata, chairman of the Trusts, whose “calm dedication” Khambata had praised.

Ratan Tata’s moral authority, they wrote, “cannot be inherited. It has to be earned, and it is not conferred by a title or a voting majority.” And “no single Chairman of the Trusts” should “override a unanimous collective decision.”

The letter comes a fortnight before a 26 November Tata Sons board meeting. Noel has stepped down from the boards of five listed and one private Tata Group companies after turning 70 on 12 November, the mandatory retirement age for non-executive Tata Group directors. Noel continues to be on the board of Tata Sons as a representative of Tata Trusts.

Khambata had left it to history to judge who showed “the statesmanship to rise above personal interest.” Srinivasan and Singh agreed history will judge, but on “the whole record.” Their final line: “The Board acted on 17 September because the institution is bigger than the individual. We invite you to apply the same principle.”

Varun Sood has been a business journalist writing on corporate affairs for the past 17 years. He currently oversees corporate coverage, including information technology (IT) services, aviation, auto, metals and mining, and conglomerates at Mint. He started as a reporter at Business Standard in 2005, after a short internship at the Economic and Political Weekly. Having worked across newsrooms in Delhi and Mumbai, including at DNA, the Financial Times, and the Economic Times, he is now based in Bengaluru. He is most proud of his work over the last decade at Mint, including writing about the rise and fall of some CEOs at Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, and Wipro. His first book, “Azim Premji: The Man Beyond the Billions”, was published by HarperCollins in October 2020. These days, he is spending more time reading annual reports and analysts' transcripts. Varun’s two pet peeves are access journalism and the dying art of interviews with business leaders. If you think there is something wrong inside your company or there are problems with corporate governance that you'd like to highlight, email him at varun.sood@livemint.com.

Satish John serves as the Managing Editor at Mint, bringing over 30 years of experience in business journalism. He began his career in 1996 as a reporter at the Telegraph after a brief stint in the corporate sector. During his three decades of journalism, Satish has written on almost all sectors, including conglomerates, power, metals and mining, aviation and auto. Before joining Mint in 2022 (this is his second stint with the paper after earlier working from 2008 to 2011), Satish worked at The Economic Times and DNA. At Mint, Satish oversees the corporate, banking and markets coverage. One of his key roles is to manage news reporting teams and ensure their coordination across cities. The other important role he plays is in helping the paper get big news scoops and stories. His colleagues say he is a great raconteur and always has some interesting stories about promoters and companies. These days, Satish is exploring podcasts and AI tools to better tell stories and reach a wider audience. Inside the newsroom, reporters and editors continue to ideate with Satish to better their stories.

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