The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has preemptively filed a caveat petition in the Bombay High Court in the matter relating to the mandated listing of Tata Sons, reports said. The move by RBI is to ensure that it gets an opportunity to be heard before the court passes any order if a petitioner approaches it.
RBI is understood to have notified Tata Sons about the same, reports said. The caveat is a preventive measure that will now safeguard the interests of both parties.
RBI in an order dated September 11 rejected Tata Sons’ application to voluntarily surrender its Certificate of Registration (CoR) to be classified as an unregistered Core Investment Company (CIC).
The decision has paved way for a public listing of the holding company.
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) for Tata Sons would mean would have to meet the disclosure, governance and regulatory requirements applicable to listed entities, giving investors greater visibility into its financial performance, investments and business structure.
Notably, the Tata Sons in March 2024 had applied to surrender its registration as a non-banking financial company (NBFC).
Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and a majority of its trustees have been keen that Tata Sons remain a privately held company. They have favoured exploring a mutually acceptable solution with the Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) Group for monetisation of its stake rather than taking the holding company public.
Why RBI pushing Tata Sons for an IPO?
RBI classified Tata Sons as an Upper Layer NBFC in September 2022. Under the framework, such large NBFCs are subject to stricter regulation and a mandatory stock-market listing. The original listing deadline for Tata Sons was September 30, 2025.
In 2024, Tata Sons applied to surrender its Core Investment Company (CIC) registration. The group said is repaid over Rs 21,000 crore of debt and becoming debt-free.
If approved, this would have allowed it to exit the NBFC framework and remain a private, unlisted holding company.
However, RBI’s revised rules now use a Rs 1 lakh crore asset threshold for Upper Layer classification, and Tata Sons’ standalone assets were well above this threshold, around Rs 1.75 lakh crore as of March 2025.
RBI also appears to have rejected the argument that Tata Sons could simply escape regulation because it had become debt-free. Its size and regulatory classification remain relevant.
In July 2025, Tata Trusts, which controls 66% of Tata Sons through the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, passed a resolution seeking to keep the holding company privately owned.
