New Delhi, March 31 -- In a short span of 72 hours, the board of Sundaram Clayton Ltd met twice, with its chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan taking over as chair at the second meeting, and reversing a decision made at the first meeting.

On Friday, the board of the TVS Group firm had accepted the resignation of company secretary P.D. Dev Kishan, citing "personal reasons." However, the board rescinded the decision on Monday, at a hastily convened meeting scheduled with a notice sent out on Sunday night. Srinivasan, 73, also took over as Sundaram Clayton chair from retired bureaucrat R Gopalan, raising questions about decision-making at the company, part of the South Indian business conglomerate.

According to two executives aware of the mat...