Tata Sons' board on Thursday voted to reappoint N Chandrasekaran as chairman for a third five-year term, weeks after he told directors he did not intend to seek a third term, according to people familiar with the deliberations, in a scenario that would mark a reversal driven by regulatory pressure on the group's holding company.

The shift follows the Reserve Bank of India's rejection last week of Tata Sons' application to surrender its non-banking financial company (NBFC) registration,  a decision that would revive the prospect of a stock market listing that the company has tried to avoid for more than a year, including by repaying over Rs 21,000 crore in debt.