Rajiv Bansal moves arbitration after Infosys suspends payment of severance pay

Rajiv Bansal, the former CFO of Infosys, has approached the Arbitration Tribunal to claim the balance amount of his severance pay after he left the company, according to a report in The Times of India.

The first hearing is scheduled to be held in May and former Supreme Court Judge RV Raveendran has been appointed as the sole arbitrator in the case.

At the time of separation, Infosys agreed to pay Bansal a severance payment of Rs 17.38 crore equivalent to 24-month pay. The company at the time said that the payment includes non-compete obligation, including other rights and obligations.

However, Infosys had paid Rs 5 crore to Bansal and suspended the remaining payment, when former co-founder NR Narayan Murthy along with others termed the huge severance pay to Bansal as excessive and said payment could be seen as “hush money”. Murthy also accused the Infosys board of not making full disclosure pertaining to it.

Infosys issued a statement stating that it had halted the payment to Bansal pending certain clarifications with regard to such rights and obligations.

The report states that Bansal had chosen arbitration over court proceedings as it provides speedier resolution of the issue and the matter remains private and confidential. The Arbitration Act provides for time bound arbitration.