Bombay HC dismisses Chanda Kochhar’s petition challenging her termination as MD and CEO of ICICI Bank

The Bombay HC has dismissed Chanda Kochhar’s petition challenging her termination as the managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank and the court has upheld ICICI Bank's contention that her plea was not maintainable.

The bank roped retired Justice Srikrishna to investigate allegations of quid-pro-quo over loans granted to Videocon Industries after it emerged that Videocon had invested in a company run by Chanda Kochhar's husband Deepak Kochhar. Justice Srikrishna report indicted Kochhar, after which the bank terminated her employment.

Further, the court also observed that the dispute was contractual in nature and concerned a private body. Therefore a writ-petition could not be used by Chanda Kochhar to challenge the bank’s decision, reports CNBC-TV18’s Ritu Singh.

When allegations of a quid-pro-quo between ICICI Bank and Videocon group had surfaced, Chanda Kochhar had resigned from her position in October of 2018 but after conducting an internal investigation, ICICI Bank dimmed that resignation as termination and also sought to claw back her bonuses.

Chanda Kochhar then decided to move the Bombay High Court in November of last year saying that if she was no longer an employee of the bank, the bank had no grounds to terminate her months after she had already tendered in her resignation.

However, with the Bombay HC now dismissing her petition altogether, it does come as a big setback for Chanda Kochhar.