Darius Khambata exits Tata Trusts, calls Tata Sons board’s Chandrasekaran vote ‘a day that will live in infamy’

Senior lawyer Darius Khambata is leaving both main Tata Trusts, calling the 17 September Tata Sons board vote ‘a day of infamy’. 

Bengaluru and Mumbai: Senior Supreme Court lawyer Darius Khambata has chosen not to seek another term as a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the two principal Tata Trusts, and called the ‘astounding’ actions of the rebellion by Tata Sons directors against Tata Trusts Chair Noel Tata ‘a day that will live in infamy’.

On Monday, Khambata, in a four-page letter to Noel and Tata Trusts chief executive officer (CEO) Siddharth Sharma, spoke sharply about the Tata Sons board and two fellow Trustees, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh.

“The sad events of 17 September 2026, a day that will live in infamy, have sullied Tata Sons’ reputation and have imperilled the image of corporate India. No spin doctoring can mask what happened,” Khambata wrote.

“Would the board of Tata Sons have acted as it did on 17 September, had Ratan Tata still been alive? Of course not. But duties are owed to institutions, not to individuals. And as Ratan Tata used to say, the institution is always bigger than the individual”.

“In April 2026, contrary to unanimous resolutions they had been party to, Vijay and Venu suddenly told the media, though not their co-trustees, that they favoured listing, disregarding the Trusts’ interests. They have not shared their reasons for this volte-face with either,” he said.

Khambata’s stint at both SDTT and SRTT, which own 27.98% and 23.56%, respectively, of Tata Sons, ends later this week. With him leaving, SDTT will have five trustees, while SRTT will have four. Besides Noel, Srinivasan and Singh, SDTT’s three other trustees include Noel’s son Neville Tata and former Titan Company CEO Bhaskar Bhat. SRTT’s four trustees are Noel, Srinivasan, Pune-based businessman and philanthropist Jehangir H.C. Jehangir, and Jimmy Tata.

Khambata also questioned Srinivasan’s choice to ignore the Trust's instructions a day before the 17 September board meeting, where Srinivasan’s key vote supporting Tata Sons Chair Chandrasekaran helped him secure a third term.

“It is now untenable to say that a nominee Director of a public charitable trust, particularly a sitting Trustee, may act against the Trust’s interests merely because he also owes a duty to the Company; he sits on that board precisely to protect the Trusts,” Khambata wrote, citing an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court in Tata’s earlier case against former chairman Cyrus Mistry. “There cannot be two classes of trustees,” he wrote.

On the question of listing Tata Sons, Khambata described the Tata model as a “living example of Mahatma Gandhiji’s trusteeship idea: India’s most famous industrial and charitable group, a national treasure where neither part is important without the other”.

“That this model is now threatened by those who, ironically citing its success, would decouple Tata Sons from the Trusts, is not objective judgement,” he said.

Khambata praised Noel’s leadership, calling his two-year period ‘eventful’, which he handled with ‘calm dedication’.

“My stand and approach has at times differed from others’, including Noel’s; I appreciate Noel’s democratic acceptance of this. That is the old Tata way,” Khambata wrote.

Khambata’s decision not to seek another term at Tata Trusts comes about eight months after former Citibank India head Pramit Jhaveri also chose not to seek reappointment at SDTT.

The letter lands weeks before a 26 November Tata Sons board meeting, after Noel Tata wrote to the board on 26 October challenging the validity of the 17 September resolution. Noel steps down from six group company boards on 12 November, when he turns 70, but remains on the Tata Sons board.

Khambata closed by leaving it to history to judge whether those entrusted with the Tata model by Ratan Tata ‘have the statesmanship to rise above personal interest’.

About the Authors

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.