New Delhi, July 15 -- On 18 August, Tata Sons will hold its annual general meeting (AGM) and only one of its two largest charitable trusts will be entitled to cast a vote.

The Sir Ratan Tata Trust, which together with the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust accounts for just over half of the roughly 66% of Tata Sons held collectively by Tata Trusts, a network of some 15 family trusts, has been restrained from participating in trust decisions by the Maharashtra Charity Commissioner, pending an inquiry into the composition of its board, an order that Tata Trusts have publicly contested as procedurally irregular and issued without a hearing.

A separate decades-old dispute, over the 1989 transfer of 833 Tata Sons shares from the Navajbai Ratan Tata Trus...