Overview
- The Tata Sons board voted to extend N. Chandrasekaran’s chairmanship by five years after a meeting at Bombay House in which he recused himself and the resolution passed 4-1 following a split among trust nominees.
- Tata Trusts’ two nominee directors were divided, with Noel Tata voting against and Venu Srinivasan voting for, and Harish Manwani used a casting vote to break the deadlock.
- Tata Trusts has publicly called the reappointment a “legal nullity” and has engaged senior counsel, signalling it is prepared to seek judicial review of the board’s use of the chair’s casting vote.
- Two senior jurists have given opposing views on the vote’s validity, and the dispute sits against an ongoing regulatory pressure from the Reserve Bank of India that could force Tata Sons to list its shares.
- The board’s decision leaves Chandrasekaran’s formal directorship subject to shareholder ratification at the next annual meeting and keeps on the table a reported proposal to give the SP Group around ₹25,000 crore as an alternative to a public listing.