New Delhi, Oct. 5 -- Regulatory pressure from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group of companies, to list its shares has opened up a can of worms.

The central bank's directive to a company to take a particular corporate action has raised questions of regulatory jurisdiction, governance limits and the propriety of a monetary authority forcing an issue related to the equity market.

What makes the RBI order even more controversial is that it comes two years after Tata Sons applied for de-registration as an upper-layer non-banking finance company (NBFC); in the meantime, RBI changed the rules of the game and is now insistent that the company goes public.

Adding controversy to this messy situati...