Bhatt’s resignation comes while the board was reviewing his response, with regards to an internal audit, which was done in the second quarter of the financial year 2026, which looked at the board’s self review (BER), carried out under the leadership of the Chairman.
The review found concerns about how the BER was dealt with and presented, including that the Chairman’s performance had not been fully disclosed when the BER was presented.
The board raised these issues with Bhatt and was still reviewing his response, when he resigned. Coforge has not specified what the undisclosed information was.
“I believe that continuing on the board while there remains a disagreement considering the characteristic of my good faith actions in the Board evaluation process would not be conducive to the effective functioning of the board,” Bhatt said in a statement.
He referred to the abovementioned matters as the material reasons for his resignation and confirmed that there are no other material reasons for his resignation.
Bhatt was the former chairman of State Bank of India (SBI) and he became the Coforge chairman in 2014. His term was originally due to run till April 2027.
The board has named non-executive independent director Vivek Sharma as the interim chairperson till January 31, 2027. Bhatt has also stepped off all company committees immediately.
Here’s what the board evaluation typically includes:
Directors and usually the chair are assess on the following:
- How the board functions as a group.
- Quality of discussions and decisions.
- Oversight of management,
- Independence and conflicts.
- Committee work.
- Individual director performance-including the Chairman’s performance.
Coforge shares ended the previous session 0.3% up at ₹1,941 apiece. It has risen 7.5% in the last one month, 66% in the last six months. The stock is near its 52-week high of ₹2,021 per share.
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