Plea before Bombay High Court challenges Sir Ratan Tata Trust Board composition

A petition has been filed before the Bombay High Court challenging the composition of the board of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) [Suresh Patilkhede v. State of Maharashtra & Ors].

Suresh Patilkhede, a 61‑year‑old resident of Thane, has filed the petition seeking the reconstitution of the SRTT board.

He has argued that the present composition of the board, in which three out of six trustees have life tenure, violates a 2025 amendment to the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act.

This amendment caps the number of life or perpetual trustees where the trust instrument is silent on such appointments. 

The matter was mentioned yesterday before a Bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad.

Senior advocate T Raja represented Patilkhede and sought an urgent hearing of the plea, particularly since a board meet was scheduled to be held on May 8. Raja sought liberty to move the vacation Bench, which will sit from May 11, to press for interim relief.

Senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, appearing for SRTT, opposed the request. He pointed out that the plea had been mentioned on May 6 as well and that the same Bench had refused to treat the matter as urgent. He pointed out that the Trust had also filed caveats to be heard before any interim order is passed.

The Bench declined to direct any urgent hearing of the matter yesterday.

Meanwhile, the SRTT board meeting that was proposed to be held on May 8 was postponed by the Trust till May 16. 

SRTT is one of the two main charitable entities under the umbrella of Tata Trusts, the other being Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

SRTT along with Sir Dorabji Tata Trust holds 66% of the equity share capital of Tata Sons Private Limited which is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies.

The SRTT board currently has six trustees - Jimmy Naval Tata, Jehangir HC Jehangir, Noel Naval Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Vijay Singh and Darius Khambata. 

Of these, three are life trustees. The petitioner contends that this is in clear and continuing breach of a statutory cap that allows perpetual trustees to constitute no more than one‑fourth of the total number of trustees, where the trust instrument is silent.

The petitioner has pointed out that SRTT is a public charitable trust established in 1919 pursuant to the 1916 will and codicil of Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata. The said instruments do not contain any clause permitting the appointment of trustees for life. 

Despite this, three “perpetual” or life trustees – Jimmy Naval Tata, Jehangir HC Jehangir and Noel Naval Tata – were appointed between 1989 and 2019.

The petitioner has argued that continuance of these three members as life trustees violates the amended law.

Apart from a reconstitution of the board, the petitioner has sought an order to restrain the SRTT board from passing or implementing any decisions until the board is reconstituted in accordance with the amended law.

He has also urged the Court to declare that actions taken by the present board after September 1, 2025, are void and liable to be set aside.