Cognizant pays 4 crore to settle CFO Jatin Dalal's lawsuit with Wipro: Top points

Cognizant Technology Solutions said that its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jatin Dalal has reached a settlement in the non-compete lawsuit filed by Wipro. To settle the lawsuit and related arbitration, Cognizant has paid $505,087 to Jatin Dalal, the company said in a filing, adding, “The terms of the settlement, which was reached without any admission of liability by either party, are confidential. The settlement resolves all pending disputes between Mr. Dalal and Wipro.”

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Cognizant said that former Wipro senior vice president (SVP) Mohammad Haque's lawsuit with Wipro has also been settled.

On this, Jatin Dalal said, “I am grateful for my journey with Wipro and I am pleased to have this matter behind me. I’m looking forward to continuing to drive Cognizant’s growth agenda while delivering value to our clients, employees, and shareholders.”

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Wipro's Chief Human Resource Officer Saurabh Govil said the company is happy to have settled the matter, adding, “We are glad this issue has been resolved safeguarding our contractual rights. We wish Jatin well in his future endeavor.”

Why Wipro sued its former CFO Jatin Dalal?

In November last year, Wipro filed a lawsuit against Jatin Dalal accusing him of violating the non-compete clause in his employment contract by joining Cognizant within 12 months of his last work date. Following this, Jatin Dalal requested the court to refer the matter to arbitration. It was then referred to arbitration by the Bengaluru City Civil Court in a hearing on January 3.

Wipro had then said that the lawsuit is not personal or targeted in the way the company is dealing with contractual obligations.

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Jatin Dalal took over the CFO role at Wipro in 2015- making him privy to various sensitive information of how the company operates. Owing to this, Wipro in the lawsuit asked for a permanent injunction on Jatin Dalal being able to share any such company-sensitive details with Cognizant where he joined as the CFO from December 1.