Kochi: In a major development, a local court has restrained the newly formed ad-hoc committee of the actors' association, AMMA (Association of Malayalam Movie Artists), which was set up following a mass resignation within the governing body. The Ernakulam Munsiff Court issued the order, directing that the committee headed by Shwetha Menon can continue its operations. The court's ruling came on a petition filed by Shwetha Menon.

The legal move follows sharp criticism from ad-hoc committee member K B Ganesh Kumar, who had slammed Shwetha Menon by pointing out that she had not officially submitted her resignation letter. Reports indicate that Shwetha Menon subsequently rejected the ad-hoc committee and approached the court.

Shwetha Menon had initially announced her resignation during the annual general body meeting held in Kochi on June 21. During the meeting, attempts were made to introduce a no-confidence motion against the governing body. Some members took a firm stand against passing the annual report presented by the General Secretary, claiming that the income and expenditure statements lacked clarity.

Following this, Shwetha announced that the governing body under her leadership was resigning. Furthermore, after Baburaj alleged that she had attempted to provide candidates for the BJP while holding the president's post, Shwetha declared she was relinquishing her membership in the organisation entirely. She later reiterated her resignation announcement to the media.

Following these events, the general body appointed an interim committee led by Ramesh Pisharody MLA to manage the administration. This ad-hoc committee was tasked with governing the body until a new executive committee could assume office through elections to be conducted within four months. However, when the committee led by Ramesh Pisharody inspected matters at the AMMA office, it became evident that Shwetha and others had not officially handed over their resignation letters.

In the governing body led by Shwetha, Kukku Parameswaran served as the general secretary. The other office-bearers included Jayan Cherthala (vice president), Lakshmipriya (vice president), Ansiba Hassan (joint secretary) and Unni Shivapal (treasurer). The executive committee members comprised Kailash, Sarayu, Vinu Mohan, Tini Tom, Neena Kurup, Santhosh Keezhattoor, Rony David Raj, Sijoy Varghese, Joy Mathew, Anjali Nair and Asha Aravind.

The internal dispute within AMMA spilled into the public eye after Joint Secretary Ansiba Hassan resigned earlier. Prior to that, Treasurer Unni Shivapal was sidelined following allegations made by an office employee. More recently, Kailash, Joy Mathew and Jayan Cherthala also tendered their resignations.