The Madras High Court on Friday refused to stay the formation of an ad-hoc panel to assist the special officer who was recently appointed by the Tamil Nadu government to manage the affairs of Tamil Film Producers’ Council (TFPC).
The petition was filed by the TFPC office-bearers, challenging the special officer’s order dated May 8. On May 10, the HC, in a vacation court headed by Justice S Vaidyanathan, turned down the request for stay on the ad-hoc committee, after the government’s counsel assured the court that the committee will not independently decide on the administration of TFPC and will only assist special officer N Sekhar.
TFPC secretary S Kathiresan stated in his petition that council president Vishal Krishna had already filed a writ petition challenging the appointment of a special officer, and while the matter was pending in court an ad-hoc committee had been formed. He also said that barring TFPC’s current general secretary, SS Durairaj, all other panel members – Bharathiraja, TG Thiagarajan, K Rajan, T Siva, Sivasakthi Pandian, SV Sekar, JSK Satish Kumar, R Radhakrishnan – have been dissenting against the office-bearers, and the committee was therefore inadequately represented.
Producer T Siva told Silverscreen that the court ruled in the special officer’s favour because the ad-hoc committee has been formed only as an advisory board, and it does not have any power to function on its own. He said that the panel plans to look into delays in film releases, form dispute committees to address issues, and reach out to the government for required matters. “We will bring all of this to the SO’s attention, and he can choose to act on our recommendations.” He said, “We will also look into the fund mismanagement allegations and will check all account and transaction details. When there are allegations against the office-bearers, how can there be more than one representative from their side?”
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The special officer was appointed by the government last month to take speedy action to set right mismanagement, and to hand over the affairs of the TFPC to its members after conducting elections within a year. T Siva says that the new round of elections are likely to be announced in one to two months.
Meanwhile, Vishal said in a recent interview to The Hindu that he is not sure if he will be contesting TFPC elections again. Sources in the industry suggest that he is, however, likely to stand for the upcoming Nadigar Sangam elections for the post of general secretary.