Nadigar Sangam office-bearers Visha, Nasser, Karthi. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
South Indian Artistes Association (popularly known as Nadigar Sangam) has informed the Madras High Court that a Government Order (G.O.) was issued as early as October 14, 2025, permitting actors M. Nasser, Karunaas, ‘Poochi’ S. Murugan, Vishal Krishna and S. Karthi to continue as its office-bearers till March 19, 2028.
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Appearing before Justice A.D. Maria Clete, who was seized of a civil suit filed by one of the members against the continuation of the office-bearers elected in 2022, the Nadigar Sangam counsel Krishna Ravindran recently said that the government had granted a special exemption from conducting elections for the association.
According to the G.O. issued by the Registration department, the Nadigar Sangam had been in existence since November 15, 1952 after being registered under the Societies Registration Act of 1860. It was now governed under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975.
The records related to the association were being maintained at the South Chennai District Registrar’s office since the creation of the office in 1974 and as per the annual report 2023-24 submitted by the association before the district registrar’s office, around 3,000 film artistes had registered with it as members.
On March 21, 2022, Mr. Nasser, Mr. Karunaas, Mr. Murugan, Mr. Vishal and Mr. Karthi had got elected as the president, vice-presidents, general secretary and treasurer of the association and their tenure had ended on March 20, 2025 since Section 15(4) of the 1975 Act requires conduct of elections every three years.
Estimating it would cost ₹40 lakh to conduct the elections and would be a huge financial burden for the association that had already been constructing an association building at a cost of ₹150 crore, the Nadigar Sangam conduced its general body meeting on September 8, 2024.
The agenda was circulated well in advance to all the members of whom 872 participated in the meeting though the required quorum was only 100. The general body unanimously resolved to extend the tenure of the managing committee, that was elected in 2022, till March 19, 2028 to avoid election expenses.
Thereafter, the South Chennai District Registrar had reported to the Inspector General of Registration (IGR) that none of the members of Nadigar Sangam had submitted any objection under Section 36(1) of the 1975 Act with respect to the resolution passed for extending the tenure of the office-bearers by three more years.
Hence, the Registrar opined the State Government could consider Nadigar Sangam’s plea for exercising its powers under Section 54 of the 1975 Act and grant exemption to the association from Section 15(4) which requires every registered association to conduct elections once in three years.
The IGR, in turn, forwarded the district registrar’s opinion along with his recommendation on similar lines to the government on September 30, 2025. The government accepted the recommendation of both the authorities and passed the G.O. permitting the office-bearers to continue till March 19, 2028.
“The plaintiff [V. Nambirajan, a 79-year-old member of the association], too, had participated in the general council meeting and had not raised any objection to the passing of the resolution. However, he had made a sudden turn around and filed the present civil suit against the resolution,” Mr. Ravindran said.
After hearing him, the judge adjourned the hearing for further arguments to March 24, 2026.
Published – March 15, 2026 02:55 pm IST
