ashneer grover: Delhi HC gives more time to parties in BharatPe vs Grovers case to file responses

The Delhi High Court granted more time to Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain and others to file additional responses to the notices issued on a lawsuit filed by BharatPe, which has accused them of financial irregularities when they were at the helm of the company.

The digital payments firm has sought Rs 88 crore in damages from cofounder and former managing director Grover, his wife and some of their family members for alleged misappropriation of funds and causing reputational harm to the company.

A bench of Justice Navin Chawla on Monday admitted the defendants’ application for condonation of delay and posted the matter for next hearing on May 24.

Their counsel pointed out that between the plaintiffs and the defendants, 85 filings had been made so far since the court first heard the case in December.

The single-judge bench during the previous hearing on January 9 had also extended the time for the defendants to file their response. It had also restrained Grover from speaking against the company’s top executives.

Grover, Madhuri Jain who was the former head of controls at BharatPe, her brother Shwetank Jain, sister’s husband Deepak Gupta and father Suresh Jain are the defendants in BharatPe’s suit. A judge had in January asked them to file written statements in response to the main suit.

BharatPe had filed civil and criminal suits in the high court against Grover and the others, in addition to a complaint filed with the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi police. It also approached the Singapore International Arbitration Centre seeking to claw back Grover’s restricted shareholding in the company, ET reported on December 10.In a separate case, Bhavik Koladiya, who had founded BharatPe in 2017 but had given up his shareholding after his conviction for credit card fraud in the US, has moved the Delhi High Court seeking to reclaim the shares from Grover. He claimed that Grover had not paid for the shares as per their agreement.

In January, a bench of Justice Prateek Jalan restrained Grover from creating any third-party rights or interest on the shares “transferred” to him by Koladiya, who had held a 30.21% stake.

The bench had also issued notice to Grover, asking why he should not be asked to return the disputed shares.

This case will be next heard on Wednesday.

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