What is the Sridhar Vembu case? Why the Zoho founder’s US divorce dispute has drawn global attention. Explained in simple terms.
The ongoing legal battle involving Sridhar Vembu, co-founder and CEO of Zoho Corporation, has become one of the most closely watched cases involving an Indian tech leader abroad. Often referred to as the “Sridhar Vembu case,” it centres on a high-stakes divorce proceeding in a California court, with implications running into billions of dollars.
The dispute is between Vembu and his estranged wife Pramila Srinivasan, an academic and entrepreneur based in the United States. Married since the early 1990s, the couple lived in California for nearly three decades before Vembu relocated to India in late 2019. Divorce proceedings were initiated in 2021.
What elevated this private family dispute into a global headline was a January 2025 court order from the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. The court directed Vembu to post a $1.7 billion bond, appointed a receiver over certain US-based Zoho entities, and temporarily halted a major corporate restructuring.
The judge cited concerns over asset transfers, lack of financial transparency, and the possibility that marital assets could move outside US jurisdiction. The order has since been challenged, appealed, and fiercely contested, making it one of the most dramatic legal confrontations involving an Indian tech billionaire.
This case cannot be understood without examining California’s community property laws, which form the backbone of the dispute. That legal framework is explained in the next article.
