3 months ago
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Global exertion steadfast Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu’s estranged woman Pramila Srinivasan has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to honour a Letters Rogatory (a petition for planetary judicial assistance) issued by the Superior Court of California successful the United States, wherever a divorcement lawsuit betwixt the mates was pending, for signaling the grounds of witnesses residing successful India.
Justice P. Dhanabal has directed the High Court Registry to contented notice, returnable by February 23, 2026 to Mr. Vembu, who had shifted his residence from Pleasonton successful California to Tenkasi astatine Tirunelveli territory successful Tamil Nadu. The announcement has been ordered to beryllium issued successful each 3 applications filed by Ms. Srinivasan with abstracted but interconnected prayers related to the Letters Rogatory.
In her archetypal application, Ms. Srinivasan urged the High Court to name either a elder advocator oregon a retired justice arsenic a section commissioner to grounds the testimonies of 9 individuals including Mr. Vembu and his relatives, whom she had arrayed arsenic respondents/witnesses, arsenic good arsenic that of Zoho Corporation Private Limited based astatine Estancia IT parkland astatine Vallancherry successful Chengalpattu district.
The applicant said, the Superior Court of California had passed an bid connected October 2, 2025 for signaling the testimonies of the witnesses connected oath and besides permitted postulation of applicable documents from them. She said, the Letters Rogatory excessively had been issued for that intent since each those witnesses were residing extracurricular the territorial jurisdiction of the American court.
In her 2nd application, Ms. Srinivasan urged the High Court to confer peculiar powers upon the section commissioner truthful that he/she could summon each 9 individuals arsenic good arsenic the authorised idiosyncratic representing Zoho Corporation, administer oath to them and grounds their grounds arsenic per the California Code of Civil Procedure and besides the Indian laws too directing them to nutrient the applicable documents.
The applicant insisted that her counsel from the United States indispensable besides beryllium allowed to analyse oregon transverse analyse the witnesses, done video conferencing, successful the beingness of the section commissioner and insisted that the depositions indispensable beryllium recorded verbatim successful writing. She wanted the section commissioner to grounds the testimony, cod applicable documents and besides different evidences related to her case.
The 3rd exertion had been filed seeking a absorption to the section commissioner to transmit his/her study on with the recorded testimony, documents, grounds and immoderate different worldly oregon accusation collected during the proceedings straight to the Superior Court of California’s code mentioned successful the Letters Rogatory. She insisted that those materials should beryllium sent successful a sealed cover.
Letters Rogatory
It is communal for courts crossed the globe to contented Letters Rogatory to each different seeking judicial assistance. In 2025, the Madras High Court had rejected a Letters Rogatory issued by the territory tribunal of Delaware successful the United States for securing oral and documentary grounds from a Chengalpattu-based pharmaceutical institution successful transportation with a patent quality betwixt Pfizer and Cipla.
In that case, allowing an entreaty preferred against a azygous judge’s order, a Division Bench of Justices G. Jayachandran and Mummineni Sudheer Kumar of the High Court held that the Letters Rogatory issued by the U.S. tribunal connected May 13, 2024 could not beryllium honoured since Article 23 of the Hague Convention permits signatory countries to garbage requests that were successful the quality of pre-trial find of evidence.
