‘Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure misusing positions’: 8 members resign | Is CINTAA dissolved?

Eight elected members of the Cine and TV Artistes Association (CINTAA) Executive Committee have resigned from their respective offices and from the association's Executive Committee with immediate effect. The members cited a loss of confidence in the present manner of functioning and have called for fresh elections.

CINTAA General Secretary Upasana Singh, speaking to ANI, confirmed that 11 members had resigned in total, of whom eight were elected Executive Committee members. The eight elected members named by Singh are:

• Hemant Pandey
• Mukesh Rishi
• Sahila Chadha
• Hetal Parmar
• Puneet Issar
• Vindu Dara Singh
• Vikas Verma
• Deepak Parashar

What did the resignation letter say?

Upasana Singh said the eight elected members submitted their resignations along with complaints outlining their reasons for stepping down.

“Out of our 11 members, eight elected members have resigned and submitted their resignations to me. They have also submitted their complaints, stating that Padmini Kolhapure and Poonam Dhillon are misusing their positions,” Singh told ANI.

In their joint resignation letter, the members stated their decision followed repeated departures from the principles of collective decision-making, consultation, and constitutional governance.

The resigning members alleged the following reasons for losing confidence in the current functioning of the association:

• The association's functioning had increasingly become concentrated around CINTAA President Poonam Dhillon and Senior Vice President Padmini Kolhapure, along with a section of other Executive Committee members.
• Several decisions were being made without adequate consultation with or approval from the Executive Committee.
• Dhillon and Kolhapure visited government offices, accompanied by privately engaged lawyers, who were allegedly introduced as CINTAA lawyers without the authority or sanction of the Executive Committee.

“The President, Poonam Dhillon, has repeatedly taken unilateral decisions, issued official communications through her ID to government officials and unilaterally decided communications to industry bodies through the official CINTAA ID, and represented the Association in public and with other government, quasi-judicial and industry bodies without the knowledge, consultation, and/ or approval of the Executive Committee, thereby nullifying the principle of collective responsibility.”

Singh also raised concerns about the use of personal email accounts for official correspondence. She explained that official communication from an association should ordinarily go through its official email system to ensure transparency and maintain a record accessible to the organisation.

“When a mail has to be sent to any organisation, we cannot send it through our personal mail ID if we want to send it officially. This is the same everywhere. Here, Poonam ji sends her personal mail ID to the organisations and asks them to send it to her. She gains no benefit from it but there is no transparency,” the actor added.

Is CINTAA dissolved?

Advocate Suvigya Vidyarthi, on behalf of CINTAA, clarified that the association has not been dissolved.

In a statement, Vidyarthi said, “The version which has been circulating that the EC of CINTAA is dissolved is totally wrong, misconceived and lacks any judicial sanctity.”

“As per the Constitution of CINTAA, the EC shall dissolve only when more than 50% of the elected members of the EC resign, which is not the case at hand. Also, as per the Constitution, new members have been inducted in their place who were next in line by the voting count,” he added.