The Board of Trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Belief, at a gathering on Tuesday, unanimously accredited the induction of Bhaskar Bhat and Noel Tata’s son Neville Tata as trustees with impact from November 12, 2025 for 3 years, a press release from Tata Trusts mentioned.
The Board additionally determined to nominate Venu Srinivasan as trustee for 3 years with impact from November 12, in compliance with authorized and regulatory necessities, and to designate him as Vice-Chairman of SDTT, the assertion added.
Maharashtra’s guidelines
Srinivasan’s tenure has been shortened to 3 years following a current modification to the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act that limits the variety of lifetime trustees and imposes caps on their tenure. The ordinance, issued on September 1, caps perpetual trusteeships to one-fourth of the board energy and mandates mounted phrases the place belief deeds are silent.
Neville Tata
“This straight impacts the trusts’ inner governance autonomy, as appointments and reappointments will now be topic to statutory limits somewhat than purely inner resolutions.” mentioned Akshat Khetan, Founder AU Company Advisory and Authorized Providers.
New trustees
Neville, 33, who’s already on the board of JRD Tata Belief, Tata Social Welfare Belief and RD Tata Belief, joined retailer Trent in 2016, and manages the favored Zudio format. His father Noel is the chairman of Trent.
Bhaskar Bhat.
Bhaskar Bhat, who was beforehand the managing director of Titan Firm, is on the board of a number of firms equivalent to Kansai Nerolac Paints and Lucas TVS. He’s a graduate from IIT Madras and in addition has a administration diploma from IIM Ahmedabad. He began his profession with Godrej & Boyce in 1978.
Trustee’s reappointment
In October 2024, after the demise of Ratan Tata, a decision was handed by Tata Trusts mandating the reappointment of trustees for all times, with none tenure limits. Srinivasan’s reappointment was unanimously accredited and deemed to be for all times, however the current modification to the state authorities’s guidelines adjustments that.
Legal professionals mentioned that Noel Tata’s time period as life trustee could possibly be up for assessment.
Gauri Jagtap, Companion Designate, King Stubb & Kasiva, Advocates and Attorneys and Sonam Chandwani, Managing Companion of KS Authorized & Associates, mentioned the appointment of Noel Tata could possibly be affected because the modification “overrides any inner belief deed provisions granting such tenure.”
“For the reason that Trusts are registered in Maharashtra, this statutory change applies to them, and lifelong appointments — even when beforehand resolved by the Belief — might now be susceptible to authorized scrutiny or deemed non-compliant,” Jagtap mentioned, including that this might probably require the Belief to revisit its governance construction and trustee tenure framework to keep away from regulatory challenges.
The modification, issued on September 1, by means of an Ordinance, states, “It’s observed that in varied devices of trusts there is no such thing as a readability about appointment of perpetual or everlasting trustees and tenure trustees and their tenure, which results in a number of litigations earlier than the Charity Commissioner and the court docket. This impacts the working of the trusts, welfare of beneficiaries and the general public.”
The Ordinance permits perpetual trustees provided that the belief deed expressly offers for them and appointments will likely be permitted solely in opposition to particular statutory vacancies equivalent to loss of life or incapacity.
Venu Srinivasan
Jagtap identified that the modification didn’t forestall the Trusts from sustaining continuity or retaining influential leaders. “The board can nonetheless appoint trustees with mounted phrases (for instance, phrases renewable each few years, topic to efficiency and board approval).”
Reconstitution of board
Khetan mentioned that following the modification, the Trusts might must reconstitute their boards, resulting in a “potential assessment of previous lifetime appointments, elevating questions of retrospective applicability and vested rights of trustees.”
The trustees governing the charitable actions of the Tata group, have been concerned in a tussle over reappointments of the members and whereas Srinivasan’s reappointment was unanimously accredited, that of Mehli Mistry was rejected.
Printed on November 11, 2025
