The 72-hour U-turn: Inside the boardroom drama at Sundaram Clayton

Venu Srinivasan and its managing director is his son Sudarshan Venu. Gopalan is a director on its board.On Friday, the Sundaram Clayton board accepted Kishan’s resignation and appointed M.

Muthulakshmi as the new company secretary. On Sunday evening, Venu Srinivasan sought a board meeting of Sundaram Clayton, and on Monday, in a rare U-turn, informed the exchanges that its earlier decision on Kishan's exit had been reversed.According to one of the two executives cited above, three of the four independent directors—P.

Kaniappan, Chittranjan Dua and Sasikala Varadachari—approved the appointment of the new company secretary on Friday, but one of them changed stance on Monday. Additionally, Gopalan, who had skipped the Friday meeting, approved the continuation of Kishan as company secretary at Monday’s board meeting.An email and text message sent to Gopalan went unanswered.

Emails sent to Venu Srinivasan, Lakshmi Venu and Kishan also went unanswered.There are two questions any stakeholder would ask, said Sharmila Gopinath, an independent corporate governance consultant. "First, what really happened over the weekend, during which period the company secretary, who had resigned citing personal reasons, was reinstated? Second, what made the chairman emeritus return to his job and role four years after leaving?”In May 2022, when Lakshmi Venu took over as managing director, her father Venu Srinivasan had expressed confidence.“Lakshmi’s focus and dedicated efforts over the last 10 years have seen the company do a turnaround in quality, profitability and building relationship with OEMs,” he had said.