Rajiv Bansal files caveat in civil court against Infosys

BENGALURU: Former Infosys chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal has filed a caveat in a civil court here against the citybased company after an arbitral tribunal directed it to pay him outstanding severance package amount of Rs 12.17 crore with interest.

The caveat was filed Tuesday after the country’s second largest IT company said it would take legal advice for further action on the tribunal’s order, a representative of Indus Law firm, engaged by Bansal, told PTI.

It was to safeguard the interest of Bansal and prevent any ex-parte order without hearing him in suit or proceedings expected to be initiated by the Infosys, he said.

Infosys Tuesday said it has lost an arbitration over severance package to bansal with the tribunal also rejecting the company’s counter claim for refund of previously paid severance amount of Rs 5.2 crore and damages.

It had agreed to pay Bansal a severance amount of Rs 17.38 crore or 24 months of salary when he left the firm in 2015, but suspended-payments after he got Rs 5 crore as co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and others objected to the severance package as excessive.

Following this, Bansal had dragged his former employer to arbitration, seeking the remaining amount.

Bansals severance payout has been one of the issues that infosys founders had raised to allege governance lapses atthe software major.

The caveat remains in force for 90 days and if during that duration no case is filed by the opposite party, the caveator has to again file a fresh caveat.