The Tata Trusts' board met Friday and discussed routine issues in a "cordial" manner, said sources, amid murmurs of a rift among the trustees over board appointments and governance issues.
Tata Trusts exerts decisive influence over India's most valuable conglomerate through its about 66 per cent stake in Tata Sons, the promoter and holding company of the salt-to-semiconductor group.
"Today's meeting was routine, with no contentious issues discussed. There was no reference to past events," a source familiar with the matter told NDTV.
The meeting, the sources said, centred around the charitable activities of the Trusts.
The Friday meeting comes after the top brass of the Tata Group, including Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday as internal tensions widened.
The Centre has advised Tata Trusts to maintain institutional stability and resolve differences internally, people familiar with the development said.
According to sources, the flashpoint is said to be board seats at Tata Sons, which controls the 156-year-old group that spans around 400 companies, including 30 listed firms.
The dispute has its roots in a meeting of six trustees of the Tata Trusts, the umbrella group representing several charitable trusts, including the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sri Ratan Tata Trust.
The meeting on September 11 was called to consider the reappointment of former defence secretary Vijay Singh as a nominee director on the Tata Sons board.
There are seven trustees of the Tata Trusts, including Singh. Singh did not attend the September 11 meeting as his nomination was on the agenda.
Following the death of Ratan Tata in October 2024, Tata Trusts introduced a policy requiring annual reappointment of nominee directors on the Tata Sons board once they turn 75.
At the September 11 meeting, the reappointment of 77-year-old Singh - a director since 2012 and trustee since 2018 - was proposed by Trusts Chairman Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan (chairman emeritus of TVS Group).
However, the four other trustees - Mehli Mistry, Pramit Jhaveri, Jehangir HC Jehangir, and Darius Khambata - opposed the move, leading to the resolution's rejection.
Following the rejection, the four trustees sought to nominate Mehli Mistry to the Tata Sons board, but Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan opposed the move, emphasising the need for a transparent process aligned with Tata's values.
Subsequently, Singh voluntarily resigned from the Tata Sons board.
