Fall from grace: Chanda Kochhar or ICICI board?

The boards of public interest entities should take every allegation by whistle blowers seriously

On January 30, 2019, the board of directors of ICICI Bank decided to treat the resignation of its former CEO Chanda Kochhar as termination and decided to ‘claw back’ all the bonuses paid to her from April 2009 to March 2018, and to block her ESOPs. The board’s decision is based on the report of the enquiry panel led by retired Supreme Court judge B N Srikrishna. The panel found Ms Kochhar guilty of violating internal bank policies and misconduct. The panel, by examining documents, concluded that Ms Kochhar lacked diligence with respect to annual disclosures as required by the