Exclusive | Darius Khambata exits Tata Trusts, invokes Ratan Tata; calls Sept 17 ‘a day of infamy’

Senior advocate Darius Khambata will not seek another term as a trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), CNBC-TV18 has learnt.

In a letter dated November 2, 2026, addressed to Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata and CEO Siddharth Sharma, which CNBC-TV18 has accessed, Khambata said he did not wish to offer himself for reappointment. He had accepted both positions at the invitation of the late Ratan Tata.

His term at SDTT runs until November 9, 2026. His tenure at SRTT also ends this month.

Khambata said reappointment requires the agreement of all other trustees.

That is a consent that it is not in my character to seek as it would compromise my independence to do so

KHAMBATA WROTE

He added that his position had at times differed from those of other trustees, including Noel Tata.

'A day that will live in infamy'

Khambata reserved some of his strongest criticism for September 17, 2026.

The sad events of 17 September 2026, a day that will live in infamy, have sullied Tata Sons' reputation and have imperilled the image of corporate India. No spin doctoring can mask what happened

HE WROTE

On that day, the Tata Sons board voted 4-1 to retain N Chandrasekaran as chairman and to list the company, with Noel Tata casting the only dissenting vote. Tata Trusts subsequently said the reappointment resolution was illegal.

"Would the board of Tata Sons have acted as it did on 17 September, had Ratan Tata still been alive? Of course not

. But duties are owed to institutions, not to individuals. And as Ratan Tata used to say, the institution is always bigger than the individual," Khambata wrote.

On the RBI

Khambata said the Trusts' July 2025 resolution had placed its confidence in Chandrasekaran to engage with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in support of Tata Sons' application for deregistration. However, he expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of those discussions.

"Unfortunately, I do not believe that the engagement with the RBI has been meaningful, much less successful, in showing how Tata Sons could fully adopt a listed company's transparency and reporting mechanisms even if it was deregistered as a CIC or could restructure to avoid the nuclear option of listing," he wrote.

On Chandrasekaran

Khambata said a second resolution passed in July 2025, supporting a third term for Chandrasekaran, had since been "overtaken by the astounding events of August and September 2026".

"As Chandra has said Tata Sons must always be in sync with Tata Trusts, and to my mind, nothing since warrants a relook at that dynamic. That this model is now threatened by those who, ironically citing its success, would decouple Tata Sons from the Trusts, is not objective judgement," he wrote.

He said he was saddened by the growing divide between Noel Tata and Chandrasekaran.

"Leadership is not about power or position but about dharma, wisdom and temperance. A position must be won by consensus and respect and not by stratagem," he added.

On Tata Sons listing

Khambata said he was the first to caution against listing Tata Sons, describing it as "existential" for the Trusts at a meeting in May 2025.

Talk of the greater ability to raise capital and higher growth misses the simple truth: the model succeeded precisely because it was not driven by avarice or short-term gain

HE WROTE

He argued that Tata Sons' status as a private company had allowed it to fully repay Tata Finance depositors, fund Tata Communications' losses, and invest in Air India and semiconductors.

"A listed Tata Sons, judged on the anvil of shorter – term returns, could probably not make such allocations," he wrote.

Khambata also said the Shapoorji Pallonji Group's desire for liquidity was understandable.

"I have remained strongly supportive of any proposal that gives the Shapoorji Pallonji Group liquidity," he wrote.

Media campaign and nominee directors

Khambata said four trustees, including him, had voted in September 2025 against renewing Vijay Singh's tenure as a Trust nominee director on the Tata Sons board. He said the decision was intended to strengthen opposition to a listing.

"Yet we suffered a sustained media campaign designed to discredit us. It is now apparent why," he wrote.

He said Vijay Singh and Venu Srinivasan had told the media in April 2026 that they favoured a listing, contrary to resolutions they had previously supported.

Citing the Supreme Court's judgment in Tata v Mistry, Khambata said Trust nominee directors were on the Tata Sons board to protect the interests of the Trusts.

There cannot be two classes of trustees – those who are nominee Directors and those who are not. All Trustees owe an equal fiduciary duty to the Trust

KHAMBATA WROTE

Khambata also said he had seconded Noel Tata's appointment as chairman in October 2024 and proposed Neville Tata's appointment as a trustee in November 2025, developments he said had not received media attention.

"It is sometimes difficult to get the truth out," he wrote.

He ended the letter by leaving the matter to history's judgement.

I leave it to the judgement of history as to whether those to whom Ratan Tata entrusted the Tata model have the statesmanship to rise above personal interest and to preserve, rather than diminish, the model

KHAMBATA WROTE

Both the reappointment of Chandrasekaran and the proposed listing remain subject to ratification at the pending Tata Sons annual general meeting.