Darius Khambata Quit Tata Trust A Day After Cyrus Mistry Was Sacked

Renowned lawyer, former Additional Solicitor General of India and Maharashtra Advocate General, Darius Khambata has stepped down as trustee of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

Khambata stepped down on October 25, a day after Tata Sons’ Chairman Cyrus Mistry was sacked. BloombergQuint confirmed the news with his office.

Mistry was dismissed by the Tata Sons’ board in a meeting on October 24. The Tata Sons statement to the media did not detail the reasons for his dismissal and said that the board had appointed Ratan Tata as interim chairman, and a search committee had been constituted to select the next chairman.

The next day Mistry wrote a letter to Tata Sons board members and trustees of the Tata Trusts, including Khambata, expressing his shock at the events in the board meeting and presenting a defense of his work as chairman.

It was not publicly known then that Khambata had resigned from his position as trustee. Since Mistry’s email letter was addressed to him as well, it is likely that Mistry didn’t know of his resignation at the time.

Why Did He Resign?

Khambata cited increasing professional commitments as the reason for his resignation.

He was one of six trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust not including Chairman Ratan Tata, according to information available on the Tata Trusts website.

There are eight other trusts listed on the website and all of them share one common trustee R Venkataramanan. Former Tata Sons director RK Krishna Kumar is a trustee with five Tata Trusts. Bain Capital’s Amit Chandra is a trustee of Jamsetji Tata Trust and was recently appointed as a nominee director on the Tata Sons board.

Besides serving as trustee, Khambata has a long history of having provided legal counsel to Tata Sons, during the times of both Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry as chairmen. Much sought after in international arbitration matters, Khambata also appeared for Tata Sons in the Docomo case in the London Court of International Arbitration, and more recently in the Delhi High Court.

The Tale Of Two Trusteeships

Interestingly, Khambata is a trustee of the MC Chagla Memorial Trust.

MC Chagla was the first permanent Indian chief justice of the Bombay High Court and served from 1948 - 1958. His son and veteran jurist Iqbal Chagla is the father-in-law of Cyrus Mistry.

Khambata continues to hold that trusteeship. His office denied media reports that he was asked to mediate between Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry.