Will Alter Restrictive Clauses On Eligibility In Bai Hirabai Trust Deed, Says Tata Trusts

Tata Trusts has decided to correct certain restrictive clauses in the trust deed of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution that limit trusteeship only to Parsis residing in the erstwhile Bombay Presidency.

“To correct anomalies in the trust deed and to align it with the values that Tata Trusts have always epitomised, the trustees, at the April 17 meeting, have decided to initiate proceedings before the appropriate authority for alteration of restrictive clauses with respect to the eligibility of trustees,” Tata Trusts said in a statement on Sunday.

The “restrictive clause” referred to in the statement was potentially the requirement of having Zoroastrian faith as one of the eligibilities to become a trustee of the charitable institution.

The move comes weeks after TVS Motor Chairman Venu Srinivasan resigned from the charitable trust as his appointment was challenged.

Former Sir Ratan Tata trustee Mehli Mistry had challenged the appointment of Srinivasan and former defence secretary Vinay Singh before the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner.

He had flagged the eligibility of the two trustees based on their non-Zoroastrian faith.

Tata Trusts, in its statement, said that non-Zoroastrians have been appointed to the trusts since 2000, following a legal opinion obtained from former Chief Justice of India M H Kania.

To this, Mistry, who challenged the appointment of Srinivasan and Singh, has reportedly said that any attempt to amend a trust deed that is more than 103 years old was unlikely to succeed in law.

The move to alter the trust deed was an acknowledgement that the trusteeship was restricted to practising Zoroastrians residing in Mumbai or Navsari, Moneycontrol quoted him as saying.

However, Tata Trusts said in the statement that the Hirabai Trust was created under a 1916 codicil to the will of Sir Ratanji Tata, who died in 1918.

“The Codicil did not provide for any restrictions in respect of Trustees on grounds of ethnicity, race or religion,” the trust said.