Divorce case in US: Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu’s estranged wife moves Madras high court

CHENNAI: The estranged wife of Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu, Pramila Srinivasan, has moved the Madras high court seeking the appointment of a local commissioner for recording and collecting evidence and documents from witnesses in Tamil Nadu in connection with a divorce case pending before a California court.

On Wednesday, when the plea came up for hearing before Justice P Dhanapal, counsel for Pramila submitted that she moved the application based on a letter of rogatory (letter of request) issued by the Superior Court of California in its order dated Oct 2, 2025.


The purpose of appointing a local commissioner is to collect evidence and documents from witnesses residing in Tamil Nadu, which falls under the jurisdiction of the high court. The evidence collected would be forwarded to the California court, he said.

This is in pursuance of Order 22 Rule 9 of the CPC, which empowers the high court to issue a commission to examine witnesses within its jurisdiction upon request from a foreign court, he added.

“The usual procedure is that a letter of request will be issued by the foreign court and, based on that, this court will appoint a commissioner who will record the evidence, obtain the documents, and pass them on to the foreign court,” he said.

To this, the court questioned whether the high court should issue a direction to the jurisdictional civil courts to appoint a commissioner. “The usual practice followed is that the high court will pass an order appointing either an advocate or a judge as commissioner,” counsel said.

He added that, as per the order passed by the California court, both parties to the litigation would move an application for the appointment of a local commissioner. While Pramila moved the application, the other party would also move a similar application to record its witnesses in Tamil Nadu. This application was moved based on mutual consent of the parties recorded before the California court, he said.

Recording the submissions, the court directed the petitioner’s husband, Sridhar Vembu, his siblings Radha Vembu, Sekar Vembu, and Kumar Vembu, Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd, and 5 others to file their responses to the application by Feb 25.

In 2025, the California court directed Sridhar to pay a $1.7 billion bond in a divorce case. Sridhar married Pramila in 1993. The two lived in the US before Sridhar returned to India in 2019.

He filed for divorce from his estranged wife in 2021. At the heart of the divorce case are the community assets that are defined as assets acquired during the period of marriage.