The Delhi High Court on Thursday referred a dispute between BharatPe, an online money transaction platform, and its former managing director Ashneer Grover to a sole arbitrator.
In the plea, through D.P. Singh and Deepak Gupta, the fintech company has contended that Grover has been disclosing BharatPe's confidential information on social media platforms in brazen violation of the employment agreement.
Even before the matter reached the Delhi HC, responding to the BharatPe notice for referring the dispute to arbitration, Grover agreed to the constitution of an arbitral tribunal but had reservations over the name of the sole arbitrator.
The Delhi High Court had, in an earlier round of litigation, slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Grover over blatant violation of earlier orders and assurances made by him to not post on social media any defamatory posts against BharatPe.
It had asked Ashneer Grover as well as officials of the fin-tech company not to speak in a "unparliamentary" or "defamatory" manner against one another.
The Delhi High Court passed an injunction order, restraining Grover from making defamatory and derogatory statements against BharatPe, its office bearers, or officials. The court also asked Grover to remove his posts, including one calling the SBI Chairperson "petty".
Ashneer and his wife were reportedly involved in financial irregularities during their tenure at the helm of the fintech platform.
BharatPe terminated the services of Madhuri Jain, head of controls, after an internal probe found misappropriation of funds that ran into crores during her tenure.
The fintech platform said that Grover, his wife, and their relatives were engaged in extensive misappropriation of company funds and grossly abused company money to fund their lavish lifestyles.
Grover had already moved an arbitration plea with the Singapore International Arbitration Centre pleading that investigation launched against him was illegal because it had violated the shareholder agreement and articles of association.
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