Tata Trusts said on Sunday that the trustees of the Bai Hirabai Trust have decided to initiate proceedings before the appropriate authority to amend restrictive provisions in the eligibility criteria (such as the prohibition on non-Jews becoming trustees). This development comes just days after former Tata Trustee Mehli Mistry, in a complaint to the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner, challenged the appointment of veteran industrialist Venu Srinivasan and former Defense Secretary Vijay Singh to the board of the Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution (Bai Hirabai Trust).

Mistry had claimed that Srinivasan and Singh did not meet the criteria set out in the trust deed, which included adherence to the Parsi Zoroastrian religion and specific conditions of residence in Mumbai. Earlier this month, Tata Trusts trustee Venu Srinivasan resigned from the Bai Hirabai Trust, citing business commitments, but later admitted that he had stepped down at the request of the Tata Trusts management.

In a statement, Tata Trusts said that the Board of Trustees of the Bai Hirabai Trust met on April 17, 2026, under the chairmanship of Tata Trusts Chairman Noel N. Tata. The meeting reviewed the activities of the Trust and discussed recent media statements related to the Trust.

The statement said, "The trustees have decided to initiate proceedings before the appropriate authority to change the restrictive conditions regarding the eligibility of trustees in order to address the inconsistencies in the trust deed and bring it in line with the values ​​that Tata Trusts have always embodied."

The trustees emphasized that Tata's ideology has always been inclusive, secular, and all-encompassing, with a focus on philanthropy and national service. Tata Trusts said, "Non-Jews have been continuously appointed to the trust since 2000, following legal opinion from a former Chief Justice of India."

The trustees stated that Bai Hirabai is a non-shareholding trust with limited asset base and activities. When contacted, Mehli Mistry declined to comment. However, people close to her said that the decision by the trustees of the Bai Hirabai Trust to change the restrictive conditions proves that such conditions currently exist in the trust deed.

He said it was for the appropriate authority to decide, but it remained to be seen how trustees could challenge a will 103 years later. He claimed that under the current circumstances, a non-Jew becoming a trustee is illegal until an amendment is passed.