Khurshed Dastoor: Thanking Narendra Modi for his support to the Zoroastrian community over the years, Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor said the community had full faith that whatever decision the PM takes would be 'to the benefit of Bharat and our Zoroastrian community'.

Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor, a Parsi high priest, has appealed to PM Modi to resolve the dispute within the Tata conglomerate, emphasising the importance of preserving philanthropic institutions.

The high priest stressed that the interests of the Parsi community, Tata's philanthropic legacy, and national interest should not be compromised by prolonged differences.

The dispute centres on the potential stock exchange listing of Tata Sons, which the Shapoorji Pallonji group favours, but Tata Trusts opposes.

The Reserve Bank of India rejected Tata Sons' application to deregister as a core investment company, implying a mandatory stock exchange listing.

Weeks after six Parsi and Zoroastrian community organisations had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to defend the Tata Trusts-led ownership model of Tata Sons and the group's philanthropic legacy, a high priest has expressed concern and distress over the dispute within the conglomerate.

Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor, high priest at Iranshah Atash Behram, Udvada -- a spiritual hub for the Parsi community in Gujarat -- on Thursday wrote to the PM saying that 'the preservation of philanthropic institutions and the observance of the rule of law are not competing objectives'. 

They must complement each other and, in fact, they can be mutually reinforcing, he stated in the letter reviewed by Business Standard.

Last month, the joint letter by organisations such as Bombay Parsi Panchayet, Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, Global Council of Zoroastrians Trust and the World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce had drawn the PM's attention to the philanthropic legacy of the Tata group while stating that the proposed stock exchange listing of Tata Sons would damage the historic character of the group.

Seeking a resolution within the 'framework of the law and in a spirit of composite reconciliation', Dastoor said that all parties must recognise that institutional legacies are preserved by upholding the values and principles that gave them their standing.

Thanking Modi for his support to the Zoroastrian community over the years, he said the community had full faith that whatever decision the PM takes would be 'to the benefit of Bharat and our Zoroastrian community'.

The interests of the Parsi community, the Tata philanthropic legacy and the wider national interest are far too important to be compromised by prolonged differences between individuals or institutions, the high priest stressed, while urging all concerned parties to exercise restraint, wisdom and maturity, and choosing dialogue over disagreement.

Dastoor was also emphatic about the 'silent but substantial philanthropic work' done by the Shapoorji Pallonji group for the community over the past three decades.

The Shapoorji Pallonji group, the second largest shareholder of Tata Sons, favours stock market listing of the holding company, while the largest shareholder Tata Trusts is against it.
The Reserve Bank of India in September 2026 rejected the March 2024 application of Tata Sons to deregister itself as a core investment company and, thereby, stay as a private entity.

The rejection implied that Tata Sons would have to go for a stock exchange listing as per the Reserve Bank of India mandate that upper-layer non-banking financial companies can't remain privately held.

However, Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and nominee director on the Tata Sons board, wants the holding company to be restructured so that it does not have to list.

A Tata Sons board meeting on September 17 turned into a public spectacle of the divide between the holding company and the largest shareholder.

The continuing turbulence in the group is over two core issues: Stock exchange listing of Tata Sons and granting a third term to N Chandrasekaran as executive chairman of the company. 

The Tata Sons board supported the proposals, but Noel Tata opposed both.