Mistry Suggests Bai Hirabai Deed Changes Do Not Validate Existing Appointments

Tata Trusts' Bid to Alter Bai Hirabai Trust Deed Raises Questions on Legality

Tata Trusts has moved to alter the trust deed of the Bai Hirabai Trust, a decision that has sparked concerns over the legality of the move. According to Mehli Mistry, a former trustee of Tata Trusts, the existing eligibility clauses in the trust deed are clear and binding.

On April 19, Tata Trusts announced that the Bai Hirabai Trust trustees had decided to initiate proceedings before an appropriate authority to alter what they described as restrictive clauses in the deed. These clauses bar non-Zoroastrians from serving as trustees. The move to alter the 1923 trust deed amounts to an acknowledgment that the trusteeship is restricted to practising Zoroastrians residing in Mumbai or Navsari, Mistry said.

Mistry pointed out that any attempt to amend a trust deed that is more than 103 years old is unlikely to succeed in law. The Bai Hirabai Trust's assets include a Zoroastrian fire temple, which would complicate any move to dilute or relax the eligibility criteria. Any such amendment would require an application before the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner, where all concerned parties would have to be heard.

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Comparison of Restrictive Clauses in the Trust Deed

According to Mistry, if a non-practising or non-Zoroastrian member is on the Bai Hirabai Trust board, it means the board is not constituted in accordance with the trust deed. The board would have to be reconstituted in line with the trust deed.

Tata Trusts said on April 19 that the proposed move to alter the deed was intended to address restrictive provisions and align the trust's governance framework with the inclusive and secular values it said Tata Trusts have always upheld. The dispute follows Mistry's challenge before the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner to the appointments of industrialist Venu Srinivasan and former defence secretary Vijay Singh to the Bai Hirabai Trust board.

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Mistry has argued that those appointments do not comply with the trust deed's conditions relating to faith and residence. His latest comments indicate that the dispute may now move beyond individual appointments to a wider legal question: whether trustees can seek to rewrite a century-old deed to address what he alleges is an existing illegality, or whether any such amendment, even if approved, would still leave past and current appointments open to challenge.