The ousted Founder of fintech firm BharatPe, Ashneer Grover has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking his reinstatement as Managing Director of BharatPe.
Grover is also seeking the revocation of the termination of his wife Madhuri Jain Grover and directions to revert any new shares issued by the firm since his resignation on March 1, 2022, as per reports.
A coram of judicial member Mahendra Khandelwal and technical member Rahul Bhatnagar heard the matter on December 6.
Indian legal news portal Bar and Bench reported that BharatPe’s counsel challenged the maintainability of the plea, arguing that only a member who held more than 10 percent of the issued share capital of the company could bring a petition under Section 241 of the Companies Act, 2013 (application to Tribunal for relief in cases of oppression). He said that this was not satisfied in the present case.
Grover’s lawyer countered that as per the BharatPe’s own Annual Report for the year 2021-22, the total equity shares of the company were 1,01,925, out of which Grover’s shareholding was 43,877 (43 percent), said the report.
BharatPe contended that the 1,01,925 shares only constituted the equity shares issued by the company and that Grover’s shareholding in the issued shared capital was only 0.00013 percent.
The tribunal has adjourned the case for further consideration on January 11, 2024.
In his plea, Grover argued that he was forcibly ousted from BharatPe in an arbitrary manner, “so as to clawback his restrictive shares, illegally, arbitrarily and without the due compliance of law.”
The plea stated: “The Respondent No. 1 Company qua its board is also making attempts to malign the reputation of the Petitioner including its family members by instituting various suits before different forums. Nevertheless, the non-stop media scrutiny and personal attacks on the Petitioner in the media is yet another factor that contributes to the coercion and oppression of the Petitioner in order to forcibly buy-back his shares at a throw away price, by denying the correct Fair Market Value of his shares.”
Since the beginning of 2022, BharatPe has been embroiled in controversy after Grover was accused of using inappropriate language and threatening a Kotak Group employee for failing to secure allotment and funding for the Nykaa IPO for himself and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover. While Grover took a voluntary leave and later resigned as the company’s MD, his wife, former head of controls Madhuri Jain, was fired over allegations of misappropriation of funds.