New Delhi, Sept. 21: The Tata Trusts-Tata Sons dispute has raised a fundamental question over shareholder rights and corporate governance, with senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi warning that owners’ rights cannot be diluted or nullified without wider consequences for Indian companies.
Singhvi, who is representing Tata Trusts in the escalating dispute with Tata Sons, said his focus as counsel would remain on the fundamental legal issues involved. He argued that shareholder rights form a core part of established corporate-governance principles and cannot be undermined in a manner that weakens those protections.
“To dilute or nullify the rights of owners who are shareholders would spell doomsday for hundreds and thousands of Indian companies for corporate governance,” Singhvi said.
He also questioned a recent order by the charity commissioner that, according to him, has prevented one of the trusts from convening to determine its course of action. Singhvi said restricting the trust’s ability to take decisions amounted to interfering with its internal decision-making process.
The senior advocate described the move as an attempt to “stymie decision-making and to freeze action” within the trust. He characterised the issue as one involving the ability of a charitable organisation to undertake its own decision-making through its established processes.
Singhvi also pointed to the longstanding relationship between Tata Trusts and Tata Sons, saying the two have been connected for more than a century through established practices. He argued that treating the trusts and Tata Sons as entirely separate entities would be “legally or otherwise unthinkable”.
The dispute has also carried a personal dimension for Singhvi, who recalled his longstanding association with the Tata group and former chairman Ratan Tata. He said he had worked closely with Ratan Tata and had observed the functioning and legacy of the group’s trusts and companies at close quarters.
Singhvi said he also knew the principal actors on both sides of the dispute closely and had maintained good relations with them. Against that backdrop, he described his personal response to the escalation as one of sadness.
“Having worked closely with Ratan Tata, having seen the legacy of the Tata group at close quarters, both trust and companies, knowing not only all the principal actors on each side closely, but also having excellent equations with them, having genuine abiding respect for each side’s people, my first reaction is one of sadness,” Singhvi said.
