BENGALURU: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained BharatPe’s former MD Ashneer Grover from making third-party rights in the shares transferred to him by the company’s co-founder Bhavik Koladiya.
The HC allowed an interim relief application filed by Koladiya, who had moved the HC saying that he transferred 1,611 shares (now 16,110 shares) of the company worth Rs 88 lakh to Grover, but the latter did not pay for those shares.
In December last year, the HC had refused to restrain Grover from selling or alienating the shares sold to him by another co-founder Shashvat Nakrani.
The court had asked Grover to intimate before selling the shares and Nakrani had a claim of damages equal to market value of the shares.
Nakrani and Koladiya founded BharatPe in March 2018 and Grover joined the company later. Koladiya had quit the fintech unicorn in July 2022. In 2018, Koladiya’s role changed from the founder of the company to co-founder and CEO, and then again, he lost his co-founder status and instead was named the CTO of the company.
In March, the Delhi HC had directed Grover to take down allegations made by him against the firm and also its board chairman Rajnish Kumar. The court noted that there had been three previous proceedings and this is the fourth time that BharatPe had been constrained to approach the court.
The court concurred with Koladiya’s argument, indicating that failure to pay for the shares does indeed warrant their return. Mohit Goel, Senior Partner, Sim And San - Attorneys At Law, representing Koladiya, commented on the ruling, saying, "I am yet to read the judgement. But it would be a landmark judgement in this area of law. I am happy we were able to succeed for our client."