A bitter power struggle has broken out at the summit of India's Tata Group, one of the world's most storied business empires, pitting the management of its holding company Tata Sons against the family-linked charities that control it. The dispute, which is now heading toward the courts, centres on the reappointment of Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran, the planned public listing of the holding company, and the future of a 158-year-old institution that touches nearly every corner of Indian economic life.

The confrontation was triggered on September 17 when Tata Sons' board voted four to one to extend Chandrasekaran's chairmanship — overriding the objection of Noel Tata, the 68-year-old half-brother of the late Ratan Tata and the sitting chairman of Tata Trusts, which owns 66 percent of Tata Sons. Noel Tata called the reappointment