Mehli Mistry Challenges Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Ouster Over Disputed October 28 Vote

Former Tata Trusts trustee Mehli Mistry has launched a direct legal challenge against his ouster from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, petitioning charity authorities to nullify the move. The board was legally compromised. In a rejoinder filed before the Deputy Charity Commissioner for the Greater Mumbai Region on Thursday, Mistry contested the change report submitted by the trust to formalize his exit, arguing that trustee Venu Srinivasan cast a decisive ballot against him after Srinivasan's own mandate had already expired.

Timeline

s submitted in the filing establish the breach. Srinivasan’s tenure as trustee concluded on October 23, 2025. Trust administrators circulated the resolution for Mistry’s reappointment at 3:51 pm that afternoon—barely hours before Srinivasan’s mandate lapsed. Yet Srinivasan recorded his vote opposing Mistry’s extension on October 28, five days after vacating office. The trust did not formally reappoint Srinivasan until November 12. SDTT asserted that Srinivasan's ballot carried no legal weight, pointing to a circular footnote directing that the entry be ignored because he lacked voting rights. Mistry countered that striking a non-trustee’s vote after the fact cannot salvage an inherently unlawful proceeding. A vote by an unauthorized outsider voids the entire resolution.

The Tenet of Section 30A

Mistry turned the trust's legal apparatus directly back onto its leadership. SDTT invoked Section 30A of the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act to assert that Mistry ceased being a trustee automatically when his term ran out on October 28, 2025. That exact statutory clause, Mistry argued, barred Srinivasan from executing any trustee functions between October 24 and November 11. Records reveal SDTT reported Srinivasan’s October exit and subsequent November reappointment jointly to the Charity Commissioner only in January 2026. Mistry demanded that SDTT produce a full inventory of every governance decision Srinivasan participated in during that 19-day vacuum.

Disparate treatment forms the core of Mistry's challenge. Trustees adopted a formal resolution on October 17, 2024, establishing reappointment without tenure caps. That open-ended standard shielded both Noel Tata and Srinivasan. It was denied to Mistry.

Corporate commissions broke the alliance. Mistry maintained his purge stems from his persistent internal questioning over commissions pocketed by specific trustees from operating Tata Group firms. In an accompanying petition before the Mumbai charity regulator, Mistry formally requested an inquiry into SDTT’s handling of these corporate commissions and related-party dealings.