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MUMBAI: TVS Motor Company chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan has been reappointed trustee and vicechairman of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) for a period of three years. The move, SDTT said, was made “in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.”On Oct 24, Srinivasan had been appointed permanent trustee of SDTT after his earlier term expired. However, this appointment did not comply with the recently amended Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, which came into effect on Sept 1. The amendment introduced provisions on the appointment of tenure and permanent trustees, including a cap that limits permanent trustees to one-fourth of a public charity’s total board strength.Currently, Noel Tata is the only permanent trustee at SDTT, which has a board strength of seven. To have two permanent trustees, it needs eight board members. Since the amended law supersedes any resolution passed after Sept 1 that does not conform to its provisions, the Oct 18 resolution appointing Srinivasan as a permanent trustee was deemed procedurally invalid.
According to sources, Tata Trusts sought advice from multiple senior counsel and a top law firm on the issue and were advised that the Oct 18 resolution was void. Consequently, since Srinivasan could not be considered a trustee from Oct 24 until this week, the board decided to reappoint him.At SDTT’s Tuesday meeting, the board “decided to appoint Srinivasan as trustee for a period of three years with effect from Nov 12, 2025, in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and to designate him as vice chairman of SDTT,” read the press statement from Tata Trusts.Section 30A of the Act states that trustees with fixed tenures should step down when their term ends unless they are ‘unanimously’ reappointed by the remaining trustees. The reappointment, according to the Act, will be applicable for ‘up to five years’ if the trust deed does not specify the duration for reappointment.The Act also states that a tenure trustee whose term expires can only be appointed as a permanent trustee to fill a vacancy of a permanent trustee arising from death, insolvency, physical incapacity, permanently leaving India or conviction for any offence involving moral turpitude.SDTT, which operates according to a deed, and Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), which operates according to a will, do not specify the duration of a trustee’s appointment.This may be why former Tata Trusts chairmen JRD Tata and Ratan Tata, along with several other trustees like R K Krishna Kumar and Jamshed Bhabha, were permanent trustees of SDTT and SRTT. Tata Group veterans said Ratan Tata had introduced the concept of appointing trustees with fixed tenures. Past trustees with fixed tenures included Keki Dadiseth, Nasser Munjee, and Mehli Mistry.The number of trustees at SDTT and SRTT is seven and six respectively.According to the Act and the existing board strengths, the number of permanent trustees has to be one at each Trust.Noel Tata is the only permanent trustee of SDTT (Noel was reappointed as a trustee for life in Jan this year, much before the Act came to effect). At SRTT, Noel, his half-brother Jimmy Tata, and Jehangir Jehangir are permanent trustees, it is reliably learned. This indicates that SRTT will need to structure its board to comply with the Act. To have three permanent trustees, SRTT will need a board strength of 12 trustees. Go to Source
