Tata Trusts and Tata Sons prepare for legal battle over Tata Group control

The parties fighting for control over India’s Tata Group have retained some of the country’s most prominent law firms and advocates, as they dig in for a protracted and high-profile battle.

Both sides are being advised by lawyers who have represented India’s biggest companies, and have also recently hired senior counsel who are among the country’s top litigators, according to people familiar with the matter. While they would rather avoid a lengthy legal fight, they said, the legal firepower being assembled suggests they’re preparing for one anyway.

The battle over Tata Sons came to a head last week, after directors voted to extend Chairman N Chandrasekaran’s tenure and move toward a potential public listing, rebuffing Tata Trusts Chairman Noel Tata, who wants the holding company to remain private. Tata Trusts, which owns 66 per cent of Tata Sons, called Chandrasekaran’s extension “illegal,” setting up a clash that could ultimately move to the courts.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, one of India’s largest law firms, has been advising Noel Tata and Tata Trusts for more than a year, according to some of the people. Managing Partner Cyril Shroff, who’s served as lawyer to most of India’s billionaire business families from the Ambanis to the Adanis, is personally handling the matter, they said, assisted by several senior partners including Indranil Deshmukh.

The team also includes Bharat Vasani, who served as Tata Sons’ group general counsel for more than 17 years before retiring in 2017.

Tata Trusts and Noel Tata have also recently retained top litigators Aspi Chinoy, Janak Dwarkadas, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi. Singhvi has acknowledged his role in a social media post, Rohatgi declined to comment whereas Chinoy and Dwarkadas didn’t respond to queries.

On the opposing side stands Shuva Mandal, another former Tata Sons group general counsel and a former partner at AZB & Partners, where his clients included Reliance Industries.

While at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas, the firm run by Cyril Shroff’s brother, Mandal was a key legal adviser to Tata Sons when its board sacked Cyrus Mistry as chairman in 2016. He later joined the group as general counsel and helped steer the years-long court battle against Mistry that ended with a victory for Tata Sons in 2021.

His Anagram Partners has been representing Tata Sons and Chandra, as the Tata Sons chairman is known, for at least a few months, according to the people.

Senior advocate Harish Salve has also been advising Tata Sons and Chandra, and senior advocate Ravi Kadam has been retained by Tata Sons, the people said. Salve has publicly acknowledged his role and Kadam declined to comment.

In media appearances since Thursday, Salve argued in favour of listing Tata Sons. It has to “turn into a public company,” he said in one interview. A global institution cannot be run by a few trustees and needs transparency and top professional talent, he has argued.

Singhvi countered publicly on Sunday. The “fundamental rights of shareholder-owners cannot be nullified in the manner in which they have been,” he wrote on X, referring to Noel Tata being outvoted at Thursday’s Tata Sons board meeting.