The Tata Education and Development Trust (TEDT), part of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust & Allied Trusts, is likely to continue with a three-member board for now, with its trustees yet to deliberate on replacements for Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, people familiar with the matter said.
The current trustees — Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata, Mehli Mistry and JN Mistry — have not discussed the appointment of any new trustees, after Srinivasan and Singh left the TEDT board in May, they added.
Tata Trusts did not respond to queries sent by FE on the matter. JN Mistry and Mehli Mistry were not available for comment at press time.
“According to the trust deed, the board needs a minimum of three trustees, which it has. So, for now, it will continue with three members only,” people in the know said.
The restrictions on SRTT convening board meetings may also have played a role in delaying the appointments, since the governance of allied trusts is linked to the principal trusts under which they operate.
While TEDT does not hold shares in Tata Sons, the Tata Group’s holding company, it is a vital philanthropic trust with more than `5,000 crore corpus.
Until May this year, Singh and Srinivasan were both trustees of TEDT. When their terms came up for renewal, Mehli Mistry is believed to have voted against their reappointment. Since the trust deed requires resolutions to be passed unanimously, neither could be reappointed.
The TEDT board has since continued to meet monthly to deal with routine matters. At one such meeting, Mehli Mistry is believed to have raised questions about Singh and Srinivasan continuing on the boards of several allied trusts even though they no longer serve on some of the key trusts.
Srinivasan currently serves on two of the five trusts under the SRTT & Allied Trusts umbrella — SRTT and the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trust — while Singh serves only on the latter.
Under the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust & Allied Trusts umbrella, Srinivasan serves on six of the nine trusts, while Singh serves on seven.
Singh exits Bai Hirabai trust
Vijay Singh is no longer a trustee of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution (BHJTNCI), a position that had recently come under scrutiny.
Former Tata Trusts trustee Mehli Mistry had, in an objection filed with the Charity Commissioner of Maharashtra, argued that the trust deed requires its trustees to be of the Zoroastrian faith and residents of what was, in 1916, the Bombay Presidency. On this basis, he contended that Singh and Venu Srinivasan were ineligible to serve on its board.
Singh’s term on SRTT, of which BHJTNCI is an allied trust, ended on August 14. In a letter to the SRTT board, Singh asked not to be considered for reappointment.
Under the provisions of the BHJTNCI deed, SRTT trustees also oversee the board of the Bai Hirabai trust. Singh’s departure from BHJTNCI could, therefore, be linked to the cessation of his role as an SRTT trustee, legal experts said.
Tata Trusts did not respond to queries sent by FE on the matter.