Ashneer Grover Vs BharatPe: NCLT Directs Ex-MD To Establish Maintainability Of Plea Against Fintech Major

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Wednesday (December 6) directed ex-BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover to establish the maintainability of his petition filed against the fintech giant.

The plea seeks relief from actions the fintech company took against him and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover. Filed in January this year, the petition seeks to declare the actions of the then-board chairman Rajnish Kumar-led BharatPe’s management as being ‘against the interests of the company.’

Grover is also contesting the termination of Madhuri Jain as the head of the company’s head of controls and is pleading for the revocation of the same.

The directive from the tribunal came as it heard arguments on the quantum of stake Ashneer Grover holds in the fintech startup.

Arguing for Grover, Giriraj Subramanium contended that compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS), issued to other investors of the firm could not be treated at par with equity shares. To this, the tribunal directed the counsel to submit precedents in this regard.

Seeking relief under Section 241 and Section 242 of the Companies Act 2013, Subramanium argued that relief could be granted to Grovers because the ex-MD held more than 40% of equity shares of the fintech major. The lawyer also stressed that BharatPe investors who were granted CCPS had not converted them into equity shares.

In turn, the NCLAT ordered Grover’s counsel to establish this by producing existing judgments in this regard and show whether preference shares should not be treated as equity shares while accounting for the shareholding of a company.

The tribunal could dismiss the plea if Grover’s counsel fails to produce related documents. The New Delhi bench of the NCLT will next hear the case on January 11.

The fintech major showed the door to Madhuri Jain in early 2022 for allegedly misappropriating company funds. Later, BharatPe also mounted a legal action against the couple by filing a case against the duo with the Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW).

The matter took a major turn last week after the EOW told the Delhi High Court, last month, that it found discrepancies in BharatPe’s books, including alleged syphoning of funds by at least eight human resource (HR) consultancy firms that traced their ownership back to Jain and her family members.

The case so far has also seen Grover appear before the EOW for questioning in the alleged fraud case.