A resignation disclosure this week taught a better governance lesson than most compliance training decks

In my 28+ years advising boards on Regulation 30 disclosures, I've seen plenty of resignation letters that read like polite fictions — "personal reasons," "other commitments." This week's filing from Advent Hotels International Limited was refreshingly different.

On September 26, the Company disclosed that Independent Director Rajeev RA had resigned, effective a day earlier, because he also served on the board of Authum Investment & Infrastructure Limited — the NBFC that had extended a loan facility to Advent Hotels. He cited Paragraph 2(c) of RBI Circular RBI/2022-23/29 dated April 19, 2022, which bars NBFCs from lending to companies with common directors.

This is exactly how Regulation 30 is meant to work: a genuine material development, disclosed with the actual reason, letting the market see a conflict being resolved rather than buried.

It's also a reminder for every board I advise: interlocking directorships between a listed company and its lenders need to be tracked continuously, not just at the time of a loan sanction. RBI, SEBI and company law don't operate in silos — your governance framework can't either.

Boards that map these relationships proactively avoid last-minute resignations and awkward disclosures. Boards that don't, end up explaining themselves to the exchanges.