Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata has once again questioned N Chandrasekaran’s re-appointment as the chairman of Tata Sons in a letter to its board members.
In a letter to the board of Tata Sons on September 30, he also asked for a video recording and minutes of the September 17 meeting that approved a third term for Chandrasekaran.
The board of Tata Sons voted 4:1 in favour of Chandrasekaran’s re-appointment, with Tata as the sole dissenter.
In his letter, Tata said the agenda for the chairman’s re-appointment was not circulated in advance but brought before the board as a debrief from the nomination and remuneration committee.
Tata attended the September 17 meeting with a legal opinion from former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, which said the chairman’s appointment requires an affirmative vote of a majority of Tata Trusts nominee directors. It also said the Tata Sons chairman’s casting vote can’t override the Trusts’ veto.
In the September 17 meeting, while Tata Trusts nominee Venu Srinivasan voted in favour of re-appointment, Tata voted against the proposal. Harish Manwani,, as acting chairman, exercised the casting vote in favour of the re-appointment resolution.
Tata had called Chandrasekaran’s reappointment illegal and said the resolution was not validly passed. Subsequently, on September 18, he wrote to board members, pointing out procedural flaws in the approval process. In response, Tata Sons cited legal opinions of former Supreme Court judges U. U. Lalit and BN Srikrishna to support its claims.
In its latest letter, Tata also questioned the board’s decision to obtain post facto validation by seeking legal opinions from two retired judges.
Published on October 3, 2026
