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Ahead of crucial May 8 meet, Venu Srinivasan, Vijay Singh voted out of Tata Education Trust | Business News
4 min readNew DelhiUpdated: May 6, 2026 04:49 AM IST
The stage is set for a crucial Tata Trusts board meeting on May 8, where key issues on the agenda include its representation on the board of Tata Sons, differing views among trustees regarding the potential listing of Tata Sons and the issue of perpetual trustees.
Ahead of this highly anticipated meeting, Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh have been voted out of the Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT) — a relatively smaller entity within the Tata Trusts group — after fellow trustee Mehli Mistry opposed their reappointment during the voting process.
Singh voted for reappointment of Srinivasan and the latter voted in favour of Singh, according to Tata group sources. However, as the reappointment needs unanimous voting in favour of the candidates, the tenures of Singh and Srinivasan will not be extended as per the rules of the trust. Noel Tata, Chairman of Tata Trusts, and JN Mistry are the other trustees of TEDT and they will be the only three trustees of this trust after the voting.
Tata Trusts CEO Siddharth Sharma and Chairman Noel Tata did not respond to mails from The Indian Express about the changes in Tata Education and Development Trust and the May 8 board meeting of Tata Trusts.
Tata Trusts board meeting will review the Tata Trusts’ board representation in Tata Sons as per the agenda of the meeting. As of now, Noel Tata and Venu Srinivasan are on the board of Tata Sons as representatives of Tata Trusts.
Sources indicated Noel Tata’s directorship in Tata Sons is unlikely to be reviewed.
Tata Trusts board will also discuss the position of two trustees and the listing of Tata Sons on the exchanges. Two of the trustees – Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh – had recommended the listing of Tata Sons. Their argument is contrary to the resolution passed by Tata Trusts to retain the company as an unlisted entity a year ago.
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Following a RBI directive that requires upper-layer NBFCs to list, Tata Sons repaid its debt and sought deregistration from that category; a decision from the regulator is awaited. Noel Tata is opposed to a listing as it could dilute the trusts’ veto powers.
The May 8 board meeting will also discuss a complaint filed in the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner’s office about the perpetual/ life-term trustees. The petition, filed by lawyer Katyayani Agrawal of law firm SV & Co, has sought urgent intervention, alleging that Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), which has three lifetime trustees in a board of six members, violated the provisions of Section 30A of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950.
This section, introduced through an amendment in September 2025, says perpetual or lifetime trustees can make up only 25 per cent of a public trust’s board. The ratio is now 50 per cent in SRTT.
The Trust presently has six trustees: Jimmy N. Tata, Jehangir HC Jehangir, Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Vijay Singh and Darius Khambata. Of these, Jimmy N Tata, Jehangir HC Jehangir and Noel Tata serve as life trustees.
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Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company of the Tata group, with controlling stakes across software, steel, automobiles and aviation. Tata Trusts hold 66 per cent stake in Tata Sons. The trusts — primarily Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust — act as the group’s philanthropic arms, funding charitable activities through dividend income from Tata Sons.
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