Former BharatPe Managing Director (MD) Ashneer Grover recently withdrew the oppression and mismanagement plea he had filed in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) against the company and its board of directors pursuant to reaching a settlement.
"Liberty is granted to the Applicant to withdraw the Company Petition CP220/241-242/ND/2023 and the same is dismissed as withdrawn," the NCLT order read.
On October 17, Grover also withdrew a plea from the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) that sought for an early hearing of the NCLT plea.
"I seek the liberty to withdraw the plea as it has become infructuous," his lawyer told the NCLAT. The appellate tribunal accordingly permitted the withdrawal of the plea.
On September 30, BharatPe reached a definitive agreement with its former co-founder, Ashneer Grover. As part of the settlement, Grover will not be associated with BharatPe in any capacity or be part of the company's shareholding.
Certain shares of Grover shall be transferred to the Resilient Growth Trust for the company's benefit, and his family trust will manage his remaining shares.
Both parties decided not to pursue the civil and criminal cases filed in multiple courts.
In a Twitter statement, Ashneer Grover wrote,
“I repose my faith in the management and board, who are doing great work in taking BharatPe forward in the right direction. I continue to remain aligned with the company's growth and success. I will no longer be associated with BharatPe in any capacity, nor will I be part of the capital table.”
Grover had filed the plea against BharatPe holding company Resilient Innovations and eleven of its directors including Shashvat Nakrani, Rajnish Kumar and John Bernard Weinstein. The plea alleged that Grover was ousted from the company in an "arbitrary manner in excess exercise of powers in order clawback his restrictive shares illegally and without complying with law."
Grover alleged in the plea that board of directors sent him on leave in 2022 over a "fabricated issue that had nothing with the company". The plea also states that the oppression and mismanagement of the company is evident from the exit of various key members from the company including its founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). According to the plea, the actions of the company through its board of directors have cause huge losses to the company.
Grover was represented in the NCLT by Advocates Giriraj Subramanium, Simarpal Singh Sawhney, Veda Singh, Rahul Kumar, Siddhant Juyal, Akhilesh Talluri, Urvashi Singh, MP Devnath, Abhishek Anand, Atul Sharma, Ravi Pathak and Joy Banerjee.
The respondents were represented by Advocates Sourabh Rath and Vibhore Yadav.
[Read order]