The charities regulator has suspended the president-elect of one of Australia’s oldest medical colleges for allegedly contravening a direction from the NSW work health and safety watchdog.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on Monday issued a notice suspending Dr Sharmila Chandran as a responsible person of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which is a registered charity, until 20 September.

SafeWork NSW advised that Chandran’s alleged failure to comply with a directive not to contact RACP staff was exposing them to “immediate and serious risks” to their psychological health and safety, the ACNC said in a public statement.

The intervention follows months of conflict within the RACP’s board, which culminated in an extraordinary general meeting last month to which police were called.

The suspension leaves the beleaguered medical college in leadership limbo. After a two-year term as president-elect, Chandran had been due to move into the role of president and board chair after an annual general meeting planned for 29 May.

The outgoing president, Dr Jennifer Martin, who was meant to end her tenure in May, was ousted five weeks early at a tumultuous April vote, run by Chandran, during which Chandran’s husband called NSW police.

The pair had long disagreed on Martin’s push to separate the roles of president and board chair, in line with other medical colleges.

In March, the RACP was found to have contravened workplace health and safety laws, receiving a SafeWork NSW notice stating it did not “adequately manage the risk of harmful behaviour … within the operations of the board”.

On 5 May, SafeWork NSW issued a prohibition notice, directing board members to refrain from communicating with RACP staff, except for the chief executive.

The ACNC said on Monday: “Chandran has been provided with advice by SafeWork NSW and the ACNC about her obligations, and has persisted to communicate in writing with RACP staff in contravention of the directions made in the prohibition notice.”

It said SafeWork NSW had advised “this behaviour was exposing RACP staff to immediate and serious risks to their psychological health and safety”.

Chandran declined to comment on her suspension.

RACP board members had earlier unsuccessfully requested, in March and April, for the ACNC to dissolve the board. The charities regulator met with the RACP board earlier this month, and subsequently informed the college it intended to investigate.

The infighting at the college has been described as “a royal mess” and “absolute shitshow” by frustrated doctors.

The RACP comprises more than 32,000 physicians in Australia and New Zealand across 33 specialties including cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology and haematology. Membership, involving thousands in annual fees, is mandatory for trainee doctors who wish to become accredited as specialists.

Last August, the board informed RACP members that it had passed a vote of no confidence in Chandran, accusing her of engaging “in adversarial and disrespectful behaviour” and contributing “to a toxic culture at the board table”.

On 21 September, she wrote to members “reject[ing] these damaging claims completely”. In the same email, she revealed she had lodged an anti-bullying order with the Fair Work Commission in May 2025. Chandran subsequently dropped the case, against Martin and the RACP. “I don’t think Fair Work is very fair … it’s not serving the Australian community,” she told Guardian Australia last month.

In an email to members on Monday night, the RACP board said it had been advised by the ACNC that Chandran had been “suspended as a responsible person, and therefore a director and member of the board of the RACP, until 20 September 2026. For this period, she also ceases to be president-elect.”

It said it agreed “to work with the ACNC to meet its obligations under the ACNC governance standards and to provide a safe workplace for its employees and volunteers”.

The email said the ACNC commissioner had appointed Adjunct Prof Susan Pascoe as interim board chair.

Pascoe, herself the inaugural charities commissioner from 2012 to 2017, was described by the board as “a highly experienced governance leader”.

“As these matters remain subject to ongoing regulatory and legal processes, the college will not comment further on specific details at this time,” the statement said.

The ACNC said that at the end of the suspension period, if it could not be “reasonably satisfied” that the medical college would be able to meet its governance obligations, the charities watchdog could extend the suspension, take steps to remove Chandran as a responsible person, “or take other regulatory action against the RACP”.