Severance pay: Infosys ex-CFO Rajiv Bansal turns to arbitration

Bengaluru: Rajiv Bansal, former CFO of Infosys, has dragged his former employer to arbitration to claim the remaining Rs 12 crore of his severance pay.

Infosys had agreed to pay Bansal a severance amount of Rs 17.38 crore or 24 months of salary, but the company suspended payments after he got Rs 5 crore as co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and others objected to the severance package as excessive.

According to sources, Bansal has invoked his rights to an arbitral tribunal and a meeting is scheduled next month.

This has opened another battle front for Infosys, which is already fighting visa clampdown by US President Donald Trump and global headwinds.

When contacted, Bansal declined to comment.

"The company has already clarified on the severance package for the former CFO Rajiv Bansal through a detailed statement. We do not have anything additional to add at this point," Infosys said in an e-mailed response.

Bansal's severance payout has been one of the issues that Infosys founders had raised to allege governance lapses at the Bengaluru-based firm.

When Bansal left Infosys in 2015, Infosys had agreed to pay him Rs 17.38 crore in severance pay, equalling 24 months of pay.

In February, Infosys Chairman R Seshasayee had clarified that of the agreed amount, only Rs 5 crore have been paid so far and that the remaining was withheld pending clarifications on the terms of the severance contract.

He had also admitted that the "judgement" could have differed if circumstances were different or if certain processes had been in place.

Murthy had raised concerns about the hefty amount and questioned if the same was "hush money".