Senior advocate Darius Khambata has declined to seek reappointment as a trustee of Tata Trusts, saying the Tata Sons board’s decision on 17 September to grant chairman N Chandrasekaran a third term sullied the company’s reputation. Khambata set out his reasons in a four-page letter dated 2 November to Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata and chief executive Siddharth Sharma.
Khambata has been a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the two key shareholders of Tata Sons, since 2023. The Tata Trusts hold their Tata Sons stake through these two trusts, which is why a trustee departure draws attention beyond the trusts themselves. His term at the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust ends on 9 November, and reappointment needs unanimous trustee consent. Khambata said he had accepted both trusteeships at Ratan Tata’s invitation and had always sought to preserve his independence.
What Khambata wrote about Tata Trusts
In the letter, Khambata wrote: “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.” He asked whether the board of Tata Sons would have acted as it did on 17 September had Ratan Tata still been alive, and answered: “Of course not. But duties are owed to institutions, not to individuals.”
Khambata also warned that the governance model established by the Tata Group’s founders is under threat, amid differences over the proposed public listing of Tata Sons and the conduct of its board. A substantial part of the letter was devoted to the listing proposal, which he argued would threaten the ownership and governance structure of the Tata Group.
The letter revisited the decision of 11 September 2025, when four trustees including Khambata declined to renew Vijay Singh’s tenure as a Tata Sons nominee director. Khambata said he would not seek the consent needed for reappointment, since doing so would compromise his independence. Tata Sons declined to comment on Khambata’s Tata Trusts letter, according to reporting on the development.
The Tata Trusts dispute over 17 September
The reappointment of Chandrasekaran for a third term has divided the board of Tata Sons, which voted 4 to 1 in favour of the resolution. Noel Tata was the sole dissenter, and he has continued to object to the proposal since the meeting. Noel Tata has opposed the reappointment and has termed the board’s decision void.
Noel Tata wrote to Tata Sons company secretary Suprakash Mukhopadhyay seeking records of the 17 September meeting, and he wrote on 30 September and again on 8 October objecting to the conduct of the meeting and to the draft minutes. On 26 October, he described the resolution reappointing Chandrasekaran as void and asked that it be treated as not passed, setting a week for an answer. That week expired on 2 November, the same day Khambata’s letter was dated.
Khambata’s own position has shifted over the past year. In November 2025, he wrote to fellow trustees calling talk of a coup absurd and reaffirming Noel Tata’s leadership. By September 2026, he had put his name to a Sir Dorabji Tata Trust letter complaining about Srinivasan and Singh. His decision not to seek reappointment now removes one voice from Tata Trusts at a point when the dispute over the holding company is still open.
What happens next for Tata Trusts
The Sir Ratan Tata Trust remains under a regulatory ban, which limits what it can do while the dispute continues. The Sir Dorabji Tata Trust seat held by Khambata falls vacant when his term ends on 9 November, and the rest of this month will show how the vacancy is handled. The annual general meeting of Tata Sons, due by 31 December, is the forum where the reappointment and the listing proposal will stand or fall on votes rather than on letters.
Khambata closed his letter with a wish to leave it to history to judge whether the custodians of the Tata model had the statesmanship to preserve it. The Tata Trusts dispute now turns on the meeting records Noel Tata has sought, the votes at the annual general meeting, and the regulatory position of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Those three questions will decide whether the 17 September resolution stands and whether the listing proposal moves forward.