mumbai, Feb. 25 -- The board of Tata Sons on Tuesday deferred a decision on reappointing N. Chandrasekaran as chairman for five more years, from February 2027 when his current term ends, after objections from Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, two executives aware of the matter said. Happenings at Tuesday's board meeting suggest that tensions at both Tata Trusts and Tata Sons, evident over the past few months, may be intensifying. Noel Tata, who arrived at Bombay House with son Neville Tata, wanted the decision on Chandrasekaran's appointment to wait till the board discussed several issues related to investments made by the conglomerate, and to the future structure of the holding company. He pointed to losses at several Tata Group companies including Tata Digital and Air India, and sought clarity on the management of these businesses, one of the two executives said on condition of anonymity. At a three-hour meeting, he also wanted to hear Chandrasekaran's views on discussions with the Reserve Bank of India on keeping Tata Sons private. The two are related because both businesses seem capital intensive and will require Tata Sons to take on more debt, forcing it to go public to meet capital adequacy norms. RBI had classified Tata Sons as a so-called upper-layer non-banking finance company (which essentially meant it would be treated like a bank), and asked it to go public, but the company avoided this by reducing debt and reducing its exposure to NBFCs. Tata's intervention marks a rare instance of dissent since he became the Tata Trusts representative on the Tata Sons board in October 2024. The Tata Sons board comprises Chandrasekaran, Noel Tata, Venu Srinivasan, Group CFO Saurabh Agrawal, and independent directors Harish Manwani and Anita Marangoly George. Emails and text messages sent to Tata Sons and Noel Tata seeking comment remained unanswered. Interestingly, in July 2025, the two principal entities of the Tata Trusts-Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT) and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT)-had approved a third term for Chandrasekaran, who became chairman of the group holding company in February 2017. The trustees had even agreed to relax the retirement age criterion for Chandrasekaran to allow him to continue beyond his 65th birthday. The current term of Chandrasekaran, who turns 63 in June, lasts until February 2027, but Tata Sons hoped to decide on an early renewal. To be sure, the July decision pre-dates the significant churn at Tata Trusts. Tata's son Neville Tata is a member of the board of SDTT, the largest Tata philanthropic entity owning 27.98% of Tata Sons. While Neville and Bhaskar Bhat were inducted into SDTT in November, their induction into the Sir Ratan Tata Trusts (SRTT) has been delayed due to objections from Venu Srinivasan and other trustees, Mint reported earlier. At one meeting, Srinivasan had noted that the resolution was not on the board meeting agenda of SRTT and required further discussion. Two SRTT board meetings have been cancelled over the last three months due to a lack of consensus. Noel Tata was named chairman of Tata Trusts in October 2024 after the demise of Ratan Tata, who exercised complete control over the Tata Group . Soon after his elevation, Mehli Mistry, a long-time confidante of Ratan Tata exited as trustee in November 2025. According to the first executive, unlike the late tycoon who held a firm grip over the conglomerate, Noel Tata is still findings his range. The first executive added that at the time, many in the conglomerate viewed Mistry's exit as a win for Chandrasekaran. The decision to defer the decision on Chandrasekaran's appointment has parallels in objections to Neville Tata joining SRTT, and, previously, objections by both Noel Tata and Tata Sons to efforts by the Tata Trusts to induct more senior executives from Tata companies into the board of Tata Sons. The "private" challenge On 28 July last year, the board of SRTT passed a resolution, urging the Tata Sons chairman "to exercise best endeavours" to ensure that Tata Sons remains an unlisted private company, and that Tata Sons "fully engages" with RBI on this matter. Meanwhile, Tata Sons has invested over $11 billion in Air India, Tata Digital and Tata Electronics since its foray into aviation, e-commerce and assembling iPhones for Apple, according to a Mint review of the financials of the three privately held companies. Air India, which ended fiscal 2025 with Rs.78,636 crore in revenue, posted a loss of Rs.10,895 crore - the highest among all companies inside the Tata Group. Tata Digital and Tata Electronics reported a loss of Rs.4,610 crore and Rs.70 crore in the same year, respectively. Tata Trusts is an umbrella entity comprising 15 philanthropic entities, seven of which hold shares in Tata Sons. SDTT and SRTT are the largest, owning 27.98% and 23.56% of Tata Sons, respectively, as of 31 March 2025. JRD Tata Trust owns 4.01%, while Tata Education Trust and Tata Social Welfare Trust own 3.73%. MK Tata Trust owns 0.6% and Sarvajanik Seva Trust owns 0.1%. Shapoorji Pallonji Group owns 18.38% in Tata Sons, nine Tata Group companies own 12.86%, and seven individuals own the remaining 2.87%. Noel has previously expressed his reservations about the structure of Tata Sons. In September last year, Mint reported, citing a person familiar with the matter that Noel had discussed a potential new leadership structure for Tata Sons with a few trustees, but the plan stalled after resistance from some of them. In private conversations, Noel Tata floated the idea of having separate roles of chairman, chief executive officer and managing director (CEO and MD) and deputy CEO for Tata Sons, Mint reported, citing people privy to the discussions. The genesis of the tussle within the House of Tata dates back to October 2024, according to minutes of the 11 September 2025 Tata Trusts board meeting, reported by Mint on 24 September last year. At least four Tata Trusts board members in the past had expressed their unhappiness that the three Tata Trusts nominees on the board of Tata Sons did not share information with them. This led to the removal of former defence secretary Vijay Singh, a Tata Trusts nominee, from the board of Tata Sons in September 2025. Subsequently, Mehli Mistry was removed from the board of Tata Trusts. In November, Tata Trusts inducted Neville Tata and Bhat into the board of SDTT. In February, former Citibank India head Pramit Jhaveri stepped down as a trustee and did not seek a fresh term. Long-time Tata group watchers and analysts saw the churn in the Tata Trusts as part of Noel Tata's efforts to assert his control over them. Tuesday's development suggests that he may now be trying to exercise his control over Tata Sons, the holding company of the $300 billion Tata Group....