HDFC Bank appoints Wadia Ghandy & Co, Trilegal to parse through board meeting minutes to trace Chakraborty's concerns

Mumbai: India’s largest private sector lender HDFC Bank has appointed at least two law firms Wadia Ghandy & Co, and Trilegal to conduct a review of the circumstances leading to former chairman Atanu Chakraborty’s sudden exit last week, said two people aware of the matter.These law firms have been tasked with aiding the bank’s internal legal counsels to sift through pages of minutes of past board meetings to see if Chakraborty had made any serious observations, according to one of the two people cited above. The bank’s board and the management maintained they had no inkling of Chakraborty’s exit and he did not specify what he was referring to as part of his ethical concerns despite being repeatedly asked.Earlier on Tuesday morning, the bank said its board approved the appointment of external law firms to conduct a review of Chakraborty’s resignation letter.

The names of the law firms were not disclosed in the regulatory filing. The bank reiterated on Monday that “Chakraborty did not mention any happenings and practices which were not in congruence with his personal values and ethics.”“These law firms will look at the board meeting minutes to see if the bank missed anything,” said one of the people cited earlier.Emails sent to HDFC Bank, Trilegal, and Wadia Ghandy & Co remained unanswered till press time.Asked if HDFC Bank plans to appoint an external auditor or a board committee to investigate the matter, chief executive Sashidhar Jagdishan told Mint in an interview on Sunday that the board is going to be meeting more frequently to try and see what are the things that it needs to do.“My hunch tells me that we will take some proactive measures to be able to assess whether there are things that we need to tighten, we need