Wipro sues former CFO Jatin Dalal
Wipro, a leading Indian software services company, has taken legal action against its former CFO, Jatin Dalal, in a Bengaluru civil court. The exact reasons for the lawsuit are not yet known. Dalal has requested the court to move the case to arbitration, which provides a private and more confidential route for resolving conflicts as opposed to usual court proceedings. Dalal served as Wipro's CFO since 2015 and left the company on November 30 after a 21-year tenure.
Court hearing scheduled for January 3
Both Wipro and Dalal have presented their arguments concerning the matter. The next hearing is scheduled for January 3 when the court will decide whether to proceed with arbitration. In September 2023, Wipro announced the resignation of Dalal as CFO in a regulatory filing.
Jatin Dalal's move to Cognizant
Dalal has been appointed as the CFO of IT services firm Cognizant. He succeeds Jan Siegmund, who plans to retire in early 2024. In his new role, Dalal reports to Cognizant CEO S Ravi Kumar and will be responsible for managing financial functions worldwide, including tax, internal audit, investor relations, corporate development, and others. Meanwhile, Wipro has named Aparna Iyer as its new CFO, who reports to CEO Thierry Delaporte and will be a member of the executive board.
Wipro files complaint against former senior executive Mohd Haque
In a separate case, Wipro has accused its former Senior Vice President (SVP) Mohd Haque of breaching a non-compete clause in his employment contract. Haque left Wipro in June after almost 13 years. Haque, who previously led healthcare and medical devices for the Americas at Wipro, joined Cognizant as Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head for life sciences. Wipro claims that Haque possessed confidential information and sent "seven files" containing such data from his personal Gmail account.
Previous instances of legal disputes
Legal disputes between IT companies and former executives are not uncommon. In 2018, Infosys sued its former CFO Rajiv Bansal over a severance pay disagreement. Bansal contested Infosys's decision to withhold approximately Rs. 12.2 crore of his severance pay, which was promised to him when he left the company in October 2015. He took the matter to an arbitral tribunal, which ruled in his favor. Infosys eventually agreed to pay Bansal Rs. 17.3 crore as severance.
