Mehli Mistry, the close confidant of late Ratan Tata who has levelled a slew of allegations against the fellow trustees including vice-chairmen Venu Srinivasan and Vijay Singh, has informed the charity commissioner that he doesn’t want to be a trustee with any of the 13 trusts, which own 66.6% of Tata Sons.
Mistry, director with the contracting and engineering services firm M Pallonji & Company, was a former trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT). While his SDTT trusteeship was not renewed in September 2025, he chose not to seek a new term at the SRTT this April. He was also a trustee of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution, from which he resigned earlier. Last month, he had also stepped down as a trustee of the Tata Medical Centre.
According to sources, he informed the Maharashtra charity commissioner that he is “not seeking reinstatement of his trusteeships in any of these charities” and instead wants the commissioner to hear his complaints.
The charity body is expected to hear his plaints on October 15. Mistry also made multiple allegations against Srinivasan and Singh in his complaint.
Mistry had filed several complaints with the charity body against trustees, including Srinivasan, chairman emeritus of TVS Motors and a member of Tata Sons board; and Vijay Singh, another trustee and a former defence secretary.
In the letter, Mistry also urged the charity commissioner to pass a final order on his past complaints of alleged wrongdoings at the SDTT and the SRTT. His first complaint was filed on June 5, the second one was on July 13 this year.
Though his complaints include multiple allegations against fellow trustees, most of them are directed against Srinivasan and Singh. While Srinivasan is a trustee of both the main charities and is also one of the two trust nominees on the board of Tata Sons who had last month chose to go against the trust advice and voted for a third term for chairman N Chandrasekaran. Singh was previously a trustee of both SDTT and SRTT, but in August he resigned from the SRTT and was on the Tata Sons board till September 11, 2025 when other trustees opposed his continuation. He is still a trustee of the SDTT and is designated as vice-chairman.
Mistry has also levelled many commercial conflict of interest allegations against Srinivasan and Singh. He alleged that Srinivasan had engaged Gerry McGovern (when serving as the chief creative officer at Jaguar Land Rover) in an advisory role at Norton Motorcycles, a firm associated with his TVS Group. He also alleged this engagement with McGovern was done by Srinivasan without making relevant disclosures of conflict of interest.
Mistry also pointed to an old case against Srinivasan pertaining to an idol theft under his watch when he was serving in a government constituted temple renovation committee. The case, filed by activist Rangarajan Narasimhan, seeks action against Srinivasan in an alleged theft in 2004 and unauthorised replacement of antique idols, including a peacock Amman idol, during renovation of the Sri Kapaleeswarar temple in Chennai. The case is pending in the Supreme Court even now.