Tata Trusts trustee Vijay Singh is understood to have received a little over ₹20 crore as sitting fees and commission on the boards of various Tata group companies, including Tata Sons, according to documents seen by businessline.
The commissions received by him pertain to the period from FY14 to FY25.
The fees received by Singh as a nominee director on the boards of the companies should have gone to the charitable trusts if good governance practices were followed.
However, according to sources aware of the matter, the fees were paid to Singh were retained by him.
Apart from Tata Sons, the companies’ boards on which he was a nominee director include Tata Advanced Systems, Tata Lockheed Martin Aerospace, and Tata Sikorsky Aerospace.
Singh, a former defence secretary, was ousted from the board of Tata Sons in late 2025, with a faction of trustees led by Mehli Mistry voting against him.
More recently Mistry has challenged Singh’s (and another trustee, Venu Srinivasan’s) positions as trustees of Bai Hirabai Jamsetji Tata Navsari Charitable Institution, on the grounds that they did not meet the eligibility criteria of being a permanent resident of Mumbai and following the Parsi Zoroastrian faith. While Srinivasan resigned from the trust immediately, Vijay Singh continues to hold his position.