Hotel firm’s lawsuit a challenge for Infosys’s US recruitment plans
BENGALURU: Infosys Ltd’s ambitious plan of hiring 10,000 American workers in the US over the next few years, is facing its first challenge as Indiana Hotel Equities Llc, a Michigan-based company, in a lawsuit alleged tortious interference by the Bengalurubased software giant and its former chief executive officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka.
Indiana Hotel’s charges include conspiracy by the Indian firm along with the Indianapolis Airport Authority (IAA), to remove Indiana Hotel Equities as a tenant in order to secure occupancy to build its work centre.
Indiana Hotel Equities, a privately held partnership firm, in a lawsuit filed on 11 July, alleged that Indianapolis Airport Authority, Infosys and Sikka, along with other Indiana government officials, wrongfully removed Indiana Hotel Equities as a tenant from a leased property owned by the Indianapolis Airport Authority.
Indiana Hotel Equities itself filed bankruptcy proceedings under chapter 11 on 10 April.
In April last year, Infosys first announced its plan to hire up to 3,000 people by 2023 in Indianapolis and started building and redeveloping a 70-acre commercial plot of land outside the terminal of Indianapolis International Airport. The airport terminal is no longer used by passengers but the commercial land has a 257-room hotel, which is at the centre of dispute.
“Unknown to IHE (Indiana Hotel Equities)…the Indiana Government Employees sought to pre-textually terminate the Lease for purpose of housing the tech giant—infosys. Upon information and belief, one of the Indiana employees had a personal relationship with Infosys’s thenceo Sikka, and is reasonably believed to have initiated the communications and negotiations between Infosys and the Indiana employees,” reads a statement from the 157-page complaint filed by Indiana Hotel Equities’s counsel O’reilly Rancilio P.C. NEW DELHI: In an attempt to improve the ease of doing business in the country, the corporate affairs ministry is set to decriminalise offences of a less serious nature under the company law.
The ministry said in a statement on Sunday that it has set up a 10-member panel led by its secretary Injeti Srinivas to review penal provisions in the Companies Act, 2013 as some of the offences may be required to be decriminalised and handled by an in-house system of adjudicating officers, where a penalty could be levied in cases of default.
“This would also allow the trial courts to pay more attention on offences of serious nature,” said the statement.
It added that compoundable offences—or the less serious ones—in the Companies Act, 2013 which are punishable with fine only or punishable with fine or imprisonment or both will be reviewed to decide whether these may be considered as ‘civil wrongs’ or ‘defaults’ where a penalty by an adjudicating officer may be imposed in the first place. Only non-compliance of the order of the officer will be deemed as offence warranting a trial by a special court.