Supreme Court declines Chanda Kochhar's plea challenging termination as MD, CEO of ICICI Bank

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to entertain a petition by Chanda Kochhar challenging her termination as MD & CEO of ICICI Bank, and also a decision to deny her bonus.

The court upheld the Bombay High Court order stating that her writ is not maintainable since the nature of dispute is contractual and it is also private in nature.

The bench of Justices S. K. Kaul and Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing the Kochhar's Special Leave Petition(SLP) against the March 5 decision of the Bombay High Court. The Bombay High Court had dismissed her writ petition which challenged the termination order and the communication by the RBI of its approval to the same, citing as "non-maintainable".

Justice Kaul told senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Kochhar, "We are not inclined to interfere in impugned order. This falls within the realm of private contract between bank and employee,We cannot interfere."

Rohatgi submitted before the bench that it was not open to the bank to take total action against his client and virtually recalled her retirement. "The question of maintainability (of the petition) has to be examined", argued Rohatgi.

He added that termination is invalid as it was done without the prior approval of the RBI.

Rohatgi submitted they have converted my resignation to termination.

He added "Whether the termination can be done without approving the resignation is a question?"

Justice Kaul replied that the RBI in its wisdom had given its approval.

(From IANS with edits)