How Top Executives Mired In Legal Dispute With Wipro
The software giant Wipro has constituted a non-compete clause, which forbids the senior executives from joining 10 major rival IT companies within 12 months after serving their last day at Wipro, according to a report by Moneycontrol. This is in the wake of attrition among top-level executives, with many of them joining rival companies. Former chief operating officer (COO) Sanjeev Singh and former iDEAS business head Rajan Kohli joined rival firms such as CMS IT Services and CitiusTech, respectively, while CEOs Jatin Dalal and SVP Mohd Haque joined rival Cognizant.
Wipro filed the lawsuits against Jatin Dalal and SVP Mohd Haque, accusing them of breaching the non-compete clause.
According to the report, the firms included in the clause are Accenture, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, DXC (formerly HP), HCLTech, IBM, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Tech Mahindra.
Wipro claimed in the lawsuit that Dalal had the names of these companies mentioned in his employee contract, and joining any of these companies in the stipulated period concerns Wipro, as someone in Dalal’s position would be privy to confidential information in relation to the company’s strategy and business.
The lawsuit said, “During the period of employment and for a period of twelve (12) months after his/her last date employment and irrespective of the circumstances of or the reason for such separation, the Optionee acknowledges that he/she shall not accept any offer of employment from a customer or client with whom the Optionee has interacted or worked in a professional capacity representing the Company during the six (6) months preceding the last date of employment or any Competitor of Wipro or the Company.”
“During the period of employment and for a period of twelve (12) months following termination of his/her employment and in the geography for which the Optionee is responsible in the previous 12 months (i) directly or indirectly engage with a Competitor whether such engagement shall be as an employer, officer, director, owner, employee, partner, consultant, advisor or as any other participant, or (ii) assist others in engaging with Competitor in the manner described in the foregoing clause,” it added.
Wipro has filed a lawsuit against its former CFO, Jatin Dalal, on non-compete clause grounds, seeking Rs 25.15 crore in damages from him, along with 18 percent interest per annum until the time of full payment. Recently, the Bengaluru City Civil Court referred this case to arbitration.
Wipro has also filed a complaint against Mohd Haque, its former senior vice president (SVP) and head of healthcare and medical devices for the Americas, who joined Wipro’s direct rival Cognizant as the SVP and business unit head for life sciences, accusing him of uploading “seven files” from his personal Gmail account, which is, according to Wipro, a violation of non-compete covenants.
