Bribery Allegations: Madras HC Issues Notice to Centre and TN Govt in Cognizant Case

Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha of the Madras High Court issued a notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a Public Interest Litigation, seeking a CBI probe into alleged payment of bribery by US-based Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) to government officials in India on Monday. The PIL was filed by advocate ML Ravi, who also doubles up as the president of Makkal Sakthi Katchi.

The bench said the details were in public domain and therefore it (the investigation) was open to the CBI and the state Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption to initiate an appropriate inquiry without any complaint, referring to proceedings of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States of America against the company over the bribery issue last year.

It also came to fore that Ravi had also lodged specific complaints over the matter on September 10 and November 28 last year with the concerned authorities. The SEC had directed former Cognizant chief operating officer Sridhar Thiruvengadam to pay a civil penalty of $50,000 (over ₹35 lakh) for authorising a payment of $2 million bribe on behalf of the company to an Indian government official.

The bribe was in connection with the issuance of a planning permit, that was necessary for the construction of a commercial office facility in Chennai, cite media reports. The petitioner has alleged in his PIL that CTS entered into a contract with Larsen and Toubro Limited (L&T) for construction and operation of commercial operation buildings at Siruseri in Chennai and commercial operation building at Pune in Maharashtra.

Ravi has alleged that CTS had authorised L&T to pay crores in rupees as a bribe to officials for getting the planning permit from the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and for environmental clearances for the Pune project. He also alleged that the amount was reimbursed over three years from 2014.