India, Sept. 18 -- Among the disputes at the heart of the Tata turmoil this week is whether the holding company of India's largest conglomerate should sell shares to the public. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is pushing for a listing, Tata Trusts chair Noel Tata is opposing it, and key shareholder Shapoorji Pallonji (SP) group is backing it.

On Thursday, the Tata Sons board sided with the regulator. The Trusts, which owns 65.9% of the company's shares, called that decision a breach of the articles of association, and on Friday the SP group publicly welcomed it.

To make sense of where each side stands, and why, it helps to start with the rulebook.

The RBI issued its scale-based regulation framework on October 22, 2021. This framework s...