Delhi High Court on Monday asked former managing director of the fintech company BharatPe, Ashneer Grover, as well as the firm to be courteous to each other. This happened while hearing BharatPe’s lawsuit against Grover and his family members to restrain them from making allegedly defamatory statements. A single bench of Justice Navin Chawla while listening to the matter said: “Social media has brought us down to this level. What are we doing here? Basically, it should be courtesy to each other… You have fallen out, fight your litigation.”
The high court told the lawyer of Ashneer Grover, “Please advise him (Grover). If there is anything, you also tell Mr (Rajiv) Nayar (appearing for BharatPe) that his client has done this. He will also advise him”. Appearing for BharatPe, senior advocate Rajiv Nayar drew the court’s attention to several tweets made by Grover against the company and the officers. Nayar said pointing to certain tweets made by Grover after the last hearing on December 8, “Even after filing of the suit, he (Grover) is saying things which I can’t even repeat in court.”
Grover’s counsel submitted that his statements had been picked out in isolation. “They have called me a thief. They have posted on my sister’s LinkedIn page saying that your brother is a thief. I have never said anything against the company,” he said, adding that he was not saying anything against the company.At this point the HC remarked, “The moment you say something about the chief officer of the company, then what else are you doing”, to which Grover’s counsel said that he will speak to his client and advise further, urging Nayar to advise his client as well.
Grover’s counsel further submitted that Bharatpe had not disclosed before the HC that it had initiated other legal proceedings against Grover, including a complaint with the Economic offences wing of the Delhi police and an arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. “They leaked information regarding I have stolen Rs. 80 crore,” he said.
