Bombay High Court refuses interim relief to Chanda Kochhar

MUMBAI: Bombay High Court on Thursday held former ICICI Bank chief executive officer (CEO) Chanda Kochhar’s retrospective termination from the bank as a prima facie “valid termination” and dismissed her petition for interim relief.

It also restrained her from dealing in the private bank’s 6.90 lakh shares that she had acquired in 2018.

Justice R.I. Chagla had reserved the matter for orders, after hearing both the parties on July 7.

The matter pertains to a petition filed by Kochhar seeking entitlements and retirement benefits that were unconditionally provided to her when the bank had accepted her early retirement in 2018. The petition stated that the bank was aware of the terms of reference and scope of the enquiry while entering into a contract with her that granted her certain entitlements and benefits.

Kochhar alleged that the bank failed to honour the contractual commitment flowing from the acceptance letter without any clear justification.

The private lender, on the other hand, sought an order directing Kochhar to not act upon any of the stocks till the dispute was completely heard.

In January, Kochhar filed a suit seeking specific performance commitments and contractual obligations promised to her after her early retirement from ICICI Bank in 2018.

The bank was obligated to pay her entitlements, which are estimated to be worth almost ₹1,000 crore based on current market value, Kochhar said. It is illegal to fire someone who had already retired, she contended.

The court also heard an application that was filed by ICICI Bank seeking execution of the claw-back agreement and recovery benefits granted by it to Kochhar.

The legal tussle between Kochhar and her former employer stems from Justice B.N. Srikrishna’s enquiry report, following which the board of ICICI Bank sacked Kochhar in 2019 January and decided to claw back all bonuses given to her since 2009 when she assumed the top post.

The enquiry report in relation to the ICICI Bank-Videocon case found that Kochhar was in violation of the ICICI Bank code of conduct, its framework for dealing with conflict of interest and fiduciary duties, and in terms of applicable Indian laws, rules and regulations.

The ICICI Bank board had decided to treat Kochhar’s separation from the bank as a ‘Termination for Cause’.