MUMBAI: Mehli Mistry has no standing to challenge how two Tata trusts are run, the trusts told the charity commissioner’s office on Thursday. Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) and Bai Hirabai Jamestji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution said Mistry’s trusteeship tenure ended on Oct 28 last year, so he could not use it to challenge their administration and governance.In its affidavit, Bai Hirabai disputed Mistry’s reading of Clauses 6 and 18 of its Trust Deed, which set eligibility for trusteeship by religion and residence. It argued that these restrictions conflict with the original Will and Codicil governing the Trust and should not be given effect. Bai Hirabai also filed a substitution application to name Noel Tata as reporting trustee in the matter related to Mistry’s complaints on the trust’s affairs, after Vijay Singh ceased to be a trustee earlier this year.Mistry responded with a submission on Thursday, asking Bai Hirabai to file an affidavit stating that Noel Tata met the eligibility criteria.“It is submitted that the deputy Charity Commissioner shall ensure that the reporting trustee (Noel) proposed to be substituted by way of the present application shall be a qualified Trustee as contemplated in Clauses 6 and 18 of the Trust Deed dated Dec 7, 1923, which inter alia states that trustee shall be a Parsi professing Zoroastrian religion,” Mistry said in his submission.Mistry claimed that Bai Hirabai’s board included trustees who were ineligible because they did not meet the criteria in the trust deed, which required a trustee to be a permanent resident of Mumbai or Navsari and to belong to the Zoroastrian Parsi faith. In a separate hearing, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) also told the charity commissioner that the office’s May 15 order, which bars it from holding any meetings, created challenges for its functioning.
