Bombay High Court Grants Petitioner Permission to Withdraw Plea Challenging Tata Trusts Board Composition

Bombay High Court Allows Withdrawal of Complaint Against Tata Trusts Meeting

Mumbai: A two-judge bench of the Bombay High Court has allowed Suresh Patikhede, a 61-year-old resident of Thane, to withdraw his complaint seeking to halt a key Tata Trusts meeting scheduled for later this week.

The court, comprising Justice Advait M. Sethna and Justice Sadesh Dadasaheb Patil, made observations on a petition filed by Patikhede in which he alleged that three of six trustees of Sir Ratan Tata Trusts (SRTT) were permanent trustees, violating rules that capped the number of lifetime trustees at a fourth of the total number of trustees.

Patikhede's Representation and Court's Observations

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The court expressed alarm that Patikhede sought an urgent judicial intervention while his formal complaints regarding board-composition limits under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act remained unresolved by the regulator. The bench noted that the petitioner's representations were pending, and the court had expressed displeasure in the manner in which the proceedings were filed.

The court added that considering the factual complexion of the case, it granted leave to withdraw the petition and disposed of it as withdrawn. Patikhede was represented by senior lawyer T. Raja, while Sir Ratan Tata Trusts was represented by senior lawyers Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Janak Dwarkadas.

History of Complaints Against Tata Trusts

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Patikhede, who fought as an independent candidate against the state's deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat in Thane in 2024, is the third person to file a legal notice seeking a stay on the Tata Trusts meeting over the past month. Delhi lawyer Katyayani Agrawal had filed a similar complaint about the permanent trustees at SRTT before the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner in April.

Agrawal also sent a legal notice to all six trustees of SRTT, alleging wrongdoing in a 37-year-old transfer of Tata Sons shares from a trust to the late Naval Tata, father of Ratan Tata. The notice was also sent to Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran, Tata Trusts CEO Siddharth Sharma, Noel Tata's son Neville Tata, and former Titan Co. CEO Bhaskar Bhat.

Tata Trusts and Tata Sons Ownership

SDTT and SRTT control 51.4% of Tata Sons, while six smaller trusts own another 14.36%, taking their total ownership in the apex Tata company to 65.9%. The complaints have surfaced when differences among the trustees of the Tata Trusts have come to light. Last week, Noel Tata opposed the reappointment of TVS chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan and another trustee, Vijay Singh, at Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT), a Tata Trusts affiliate.