Chanda Kochhar, former managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank has moved the Bombay High Court claiming retiral dues and benefits.
Kochhar has filed a suit seeking specific performance of ICICI Bank's contractual obligations due to her since her early retirement on October 4, 2018, lawyers involved in the filing told BloombergQuint, BloombergQuint has reported.
On Thursday, Justice AK Menon granted the bank two weeks to file its response.
According to the Suit, the Bank accepted her early retirement on October 4, 2018, and had unconditionally agreed to honour certain commitments and contractual obligations towards her entitlements and benefits.
However, the Bank on receipt of the Enquiry Report by retired Supreme Court Justice BN Srikrishna sought to convert her early retirement into a 'Termination' four months after her retirement without any legal basis and subsequently declined to grant her the benefits which were unconditionally committed to being given to her at the time of her early retirement.
A private enquiry was set up in May 2018 under Justice Srikrishna after the bank received a whistle-blower complaint making allegations against Kochhar, following which post which she proceeded on leave.
After receiving a whistle-blower complaint making allegations against Kochhar, the Bank board decided to institute a private enquiry around May 2018, post which Kochhar proceeded on leave. In October, the bank accepted her request for early retirement and agreed to provide certain benefits.
In 2019, ICICI Bank’s internal inquiry allegedly found that Chanda Kochhar had violated disclosure norms on conflict of interest and that her October 2018 exit would not be treated as normal resignation but as a dismissal.
