Former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar on Tuesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court order that refused to stay her “illegal” termination on January 30, 2019, allegedly almost four months after the bank approved her voluntary resignation on October 4, 2018.
She sought all retirement benefits and entitlements like Employee Stock Options (ESOPs), which allegedly have been “wrongfully revoked by the bank as a consequence of her illegal termination post her retirement.”
She also wants the apex court to restrain the Bank from “denying, obstructing or interfering with her exercise of the vested and unvested stock options” allotted to her under the Bank's Retirement acceptance letter of October 4, 2018.
Besides this, she has sought permission to deal with the 6,90,000 shares held by her for which she had paid full consideration.
Chanda alleged that she had not only been deprived of her retirement benefits on the basis of illegal termination but also restrained from dealing with 6,90,000 shares and the HC failed to appreciate that the ICICI Bank had no contractual or legal basis to assert a claim.
“...the HC has wrongly held that the balance of convenience is completely in favour of the bank,” the appeal stated, adding that once " rated as the most powerful women" and having been conferred "one of the highest civilian awards in the country Padma Bhushan" is suffering the wrath of grave persecution and harassment at the age of 62 years.
She had contended that the bank denied her remuneration and clawed back all the bonuses and stock options between April 2009 and March 2018, for her alleged role in granting out-of-turn loans worth Rs 3,250 crore to the Videocon Group which benefited her husband Deepak Kochhar.
A SC Bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.
An ICICI Bank internal inquiry in 2019 had found that Kochhar violated disclosure norms on conflict of interest. The board said her October 2018 exit would not be treated as normal resignation but as dismissal.
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