On Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the Supreme Court rejected Kochhar’s appeal against the Bombay HC order upholding her sacking as the CEO and MD of the ICICI Bank. Kochhar was sacked last year after which the board also decided to take back all the bonuses given to her since 2009 when she took the charge of the post.
Earlier, the Bombay High Court had dismissed her petition against the bank’s decision. Aggrieved by it, she approached the Apex court. But the apex court also dismissed her petition and said, “This falls within the realm of private bank and employees. Sorry, we are not inclined to interfere with the High Court Order.”
Earlier in March 2019, the Bombay High Court dismissed her plea against the termination of employment.
On March 29 2018, it was first reported by the media that Videocon promoter Venugopal Dhoot provided crores of money to the firm she had set up with her husband Deepak Kochhar and two relatives just six months after Videocon has been given a loan of Rs 3,250 Crores from ICICI Bank in 2012 and this made Chanda Kochhar and the bank to come under regulatory scrutiny.
Kochhar thereafter applied for early retirement which was accepted by the board of directors of ICICI Bank.
The committee of Justice BN Shrikrishna was appointed to investigate the loan granted by ICICI Bank to Videocon and side by side Deepak Kochhar, husband of Chanda Kochhar was also investigated for sudden investments by Videocon in his company, Nupower Renewables. However, Justice Shrikrishna's committee found Kochhar guilty in January last year and with this, the Director Board of ICICI Bank terminated her employment. Moreover, the board took action after they received the inquiry report and considered it with due consultation.
