Supreme Court winds up criminal cases launched against Azim Premji by an NGO

The Supreme Court on March 10 closed all the pending criminal proceedings against Azim Premji and his wife Yaseem Azim Premji that were launched by an organization by the name India Awake for Transparency.

The closure of cases comes after the organization’s head tendered an unconditional apology before the apex court for initiating a chunk of criminal proceedings against Wipro’s former Chairman.

Nearly 70 criminal cases had been launched by the NGO alleging breach of trust and corruption during the merger with a firm from the Azim Premji group as well as irregularity in transfer of assets. The trial in the cases had commenced before a Bangalore court and summons were issued to Premji and others.

After the Karnataka High Court refused to quash the summons issued to him, Premji approached the Supreme Court seeking relief against the summons. In October 2021, the top court had stayed the criminal proceedings before the trial court in Bengaluru.

The top court had earlier termed this batch of cases against Premji as a maze of “frivolous litigation” and had also asked the NGO to tender an apology to Premji in this regard.

The businessman was asked by the court to consider settlement.

Today, following the apology, the court directed for the disposal of all the criminal cases pending against Premji initiated by India Awake for Transparency.