The Reserve Bank of India, through its counsel, has raised objections to the Bombay High Court accepting the writ petition filed by the former chief executive and MD of ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochhar.

Chanda Kochhar had resigned from her post in October 2018 following reports that she had sanctioned loans to the Videocon group which ultimately benefitted her husband Deepak Kochhar. These loans were alleged to have been sanctioned out of turn. Months after she voluntarily resigned and her resignation was accepted and she was relieved from the Bank, she was issued a notice of termination of her service on January 30, 2019. This also meant she was deprived of several benefits which she was otherwise entitled to. These included her remuneration, and more importantly some of the bonuses and stock options she had been granted for the period April 2009 to March 2018.

Kochhar filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court against this order of the RBI terminating her service.

As per reports, RBI’s counsel told the court that entertaining her writ petition will open the floodgates for numerous other petitions of similar nature. RBI also claims it does not interfere in the issues involving the employees and employers of a bank. The RBI also denied any mala fide or arbitrariness in its decision to terminate Chanda Kochhar’s services.  

The lawyer representing Chanda Kochhar however argued in court that the RBI should not have given its approval for the termination of her client’s service and that the termination was illegal, untenable and unsustainable in law.

While Venkatesh Dhond appeared for RBI, Chanda Kochhar was represented by Vikram Nankani. The Bombay High Court has now adjourned the hearing in the case to January 13, 2020.