MUMBAI: As expected, the scheduled shareholders meeting of Tata Sons was adjourned Tuesday due to lack of quorum, for the first time in the group's 158-year-old history, due to which a joint representative of the two largest Tata Trusts--Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust which together own close to 5.2% of the companny—could not be present for the meeting, a key requirement for the quorum due to ban on the latter by the charities regulator from holding its board meeting since May.
“Because of the regulatory ban on the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, the two key trusts, the other being the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, could not jointly nominate their representative, which is a key requirement for the quorum. For the first since its founding in 1917, the AGM was adjourned. Hopefully they would meet soon to find a date next month,” a Bombay House source told TNIE.
The 108th AGM was crucial for renominating N Chandrasekaran as a director on the board, a precondition for being the chairman, which is now in question as he can remain a director only until an official meeting is reconvened.
Under the articles of association of Tata Sons, the company has time till September 30 to convene the AGM if there is quorum and if by then also it is unable to have the quorum board can seek time till December 31. Beyond which, if not reappointed, Chandra, who announced on August 12 that he was “not available for a third term beyond February, 20, 2027,” will have to resign mid-way. If that were to happen, there will be a serious leadership challenge at the country's largest corporate house.
However, the main trust SDTT while accepting Chandra’s decision to leave the office on completion of his current term by February next, had said day later on August 13 that it would soon form a search panel, which again a mandatory requirement to appoint a new chairman.
While article 86 requires at least five shareholders to be present for the AGM and reappointment of directors, including one representative jointly nominated by the SDTT and SRTT, article 87 allows the meeting to be adjourned in the absence of a quorum. But the adjourned meeting would still require that joint nominee, and the SRTT cannot make such a nomination while under the regulatory ban.
The SDTT had at its last Thursday’s board meeting decided it could not jointly nominate a representative with the SRTT for the AGM because of the regulatory ban on SRTT.
The AGM was to adopt company's FY26 accounts, dividend declaration, and reappointment of Chandra as a director who retires by rotation. The trusts rely on dividend income from Tata Sons to fund philanthropic activities, but Tata Sons cannot even do that without the joint approval from both the trusts, which between them won 52% of the total 66.4% ownership of Tata Sons.
The $290-billion diversified Tata Group that straddles from salt to software, airlines to automobiles and steel to semiconductors, was established 158 years ago in 1869 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the holding company Tata Sons was incorporated later on December 8, 1917.
It can be noted that the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner had banned the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, created in 1919, owns 23.56% or 95,211 shares, making it the second largest owner-trust of the company, according to the FY26 annual report of Tata Sons, was banned from holding its board meeting for violating the amended charities act following a private complaint by a city lawyer.
The Maharashtra Public Charitable Trusts Act was amended in September 2025 incorporating a key change that mandates that any public charities not to have more than a quarter of its board members as life-time trustees. In the case of the SRTT, it has been 50% as three (Noel Tata, Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan) of its six trustees are life-time trustees. Though Singh had left the trust last Tuesday on completion of his term at the trust, the regulator has not lifted the ban nor gave them an urgent hearing.
The largest and the older trust SDTT was created in 1932 and owns 27.98% or 1,13,067 shares of the 66.4% stake that the charities collectively own in Tata Sons with a market value of close to $400 billion. The third biggest shareholder is the SP Group with 18.6% stake and the next are the listed group companies like Tata Steel, Tata Power and Tata Chemicals, which between them own 13%, according to the latest annual report.
According to people aware of the matter, the AGM began at 2:30 pm, as scheduled, and was adjourned at 3 pm. Chandra was present at the Bombay House along with board members Saurabh Agarwal and Anita Marangoly George. Others, such as Noel Tata, the chairman of Tata Trusts, joined virtually, as did Harish Manwani and Venu Srinivasan.
The former Tata group insider Mehli Mistry, whose appointment on several Tata Trusts was voted down last year, joined the meeting virtually as the executor of the late Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata's will.
