Bengaluru and Mumbai, May 13 -- A 37-year-old transfer of shares of Tata Sons from a trust to the late Naval Tata-later inherited by his sons, Tata Trusts chair Noel Tata, the late Ratan Tata and his brother Jimmy Tata-has surfaced as an issue for the philanthropic entities that control the group.

On Tuesday, Sunil Tulsiram Patilkhede, through his lawyer, Katyayani Agrawal, sent a legal notice to the six trustees of Sir Ratan Tata Trust, or SRTT, which owns 23.56% of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group.

This is the third such legal notice against SRTT in the last month. First, lawyer Agrawal had complained to the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner that three among its six trustees-Noel Tata, Pune philanthropist Jehangir HC Je...