{"id":4972,"date":"2026-04-18T05:47:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/amid-disputes-singh-skips-tata-trust-meeting\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T00:17:50","slug":"amid-disputes-singh-skips-tata-trust-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/amid-disputes-singh-skips-tata-trust-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Amid disputes, Singh skips Tata trust meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-articlebody=\"1\"><video-embed value=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"ihgno clearfix  \">\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130345416,imgsize-9972,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/130345416.jpg\" alt=\"Amid disputes, Singh skips Tata trust meeting\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>MUMBAI: <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/vijay-singh\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Vijay Singh<\/a>, a former Indian defence secretary whose eligibility as a trustee has come under legal challenge, absented himself from the board meeting of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution on Friday, the latest sign of an intensifying governance dispute within India\u2019s most powerful philanthropic network.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>The challenge was brought by Mehli Mistry, a former trustee, before the Maharashtra charity commissioner, questioning the appointments of Singh and Venu Srinivasan as trustees of Bai Hirabai. Mistry cited clauses in the 1923 trust deed requiring all trustees to be Zoroastrians and permanent residents of Mumbai, and argued that neither of them met those conditions.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>Srinivasan, chairman emeritus of TVS Motors, stepped down citing other commitments, but later acknowledged he had done so at the request of Tata Trusts management. <!-- -->Singh declined a similar request. <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"11\"\/>Those present at the Friday meeting included chairman Noel Tata, trustees Darius Khambata and Jehangir HC Jehangir, the last of whom joined by video conference from Europe. Jimmy Tata, Noel\u2019s older half-brother and a fellow trustee, was again absent. Singh confirmed he did not attend the meeting. A person familiar with the proceedings said the board discussed, among other matters, Mistry\u2019s objections and next steps.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>The dispute has exposed a deeper legal tension. Both Srinivasan and Singh alleged that Tata Trusts had withheld from them a legal opinion by former chief justice of India MH Kania, who held that the restrictive eligibility clauses in Bai Hirabai\u2019s trust deed were \u201cbad in law.\u201d <span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>That interpretation had previously allowed former Tata Group director RK Krishnakumar to be inducted onto the board. Tata Trusts said irrespective of that opinion and past precedent, appointments of non-Zoroastrians remained open to challenge under the deed\u2019s provisions, adding that a legal opinion did not substitute for a judicial pronouncement. The commissioner has yet to order a formal inquiry. Bai Hirabai was endowed by Sir Ratan Tata, younger son of Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata, who bequeathed properties in Mumbai and Navsari to the institution, the provenance that gives its century-old deed its continuing legal force.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/business\/india-business\/amid-disputes-singh-skips-tata-trust-meeting\/articleshow\/130345405.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUMBAI: Vijay Singh, a former Indian defence secretary whose eligibility as a trustee has come under legal challenge, absented himself from the board meeting of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution on Friday, the latest sign of an intensifying governance dispute within India\u2019s most powerful philanthropic network.The challenge was brought by Mehli Mistry, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}