Darius Khambata, a senior advocate and a trustee of the two trusts that are the largest shareholders of Tata Sons, has declined another term in office, The Hindu BusinessLine reported. In a letter written on Monday, November 2, to Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, Khambata said the Tata Sons board's September 17, 2026 decision to grant chairman N Chandrasekaran a third term had sullied the company's reputation.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine

"The sad events of September 17, 2026, a day that will live in infamy, have sullied Tata Sons' reputation and imperilled the image of corporate India. No amount of spin doctoring can mask what happened," Khambata wrote, according to BusinessLine. He asked whether the board would have acted the same way had Ratan Tata still been alive, and answered: "Of course not." These are Khambata's stated views in his letter, reported as his allegations about the board's decision.

Chandrasekaran's reappointment was carried by a 4-1 vote of the holding company's board, with Noel Tata the sole dissenter, BusinessLine reported, and Noel Tata has continued to object to the proposal. Khambata has been a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) since 2023, and his SDTT term was due to end in November.

A second report, by DevDiscourse, said Khambata told Noel Tata and Trusts CEO Siddharth Sharma in his November 2 letter that he would not seek the consent of other trustees that his reappointment required, because doing so was not in his character and could compromise his independence. He said his approach had at times differed from that of other trustees, including the chairman.

Source: DevDiscourse

The letter also restated Khambata's long-standing opposition to any listing of Tata Sons. He said he first cautioned against a listing at a Trusts meeting in May 2025, describing it as "existential" for the Trusts, and that he drafted the July 28, 2025 resolution opposing a listing while backing a liquidity and exit route for the minority shareholder, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, DevDiscourse reported.

Tata Sons declined to comment on Khambata's letter, BusinessLine reported. The exit of a trustee seen as close to Noel Tata, at a moment when the chairman and Chandrasekaran are publicly divided over the reappointment, deepens the governance dispute at the top of India's largest business group — a dispute investors in listed Tata companies will be watching as the trusts' boards are reconstituted.