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Online marketplace Flipkart, which is currently locked in a bid to acquire Snapdeal, has been slapped with a legal notice by its former chief operating officer Nitin Seth over an alleged 'wrongful dismissal'.

The legal notice may impact the e-commerce company which is planning to hire talent at top positions to brace up for a fight with Amazon.

Seth, according to a report in Times of India, has contested that his ouster from the firm is illegal. Flipkart declined from commenting on this development when contacted by Moneycontrol.

Seth had joined Flipkart last year as the Chief People Officer and was soon elevated to the COO position, the second highest executive position after CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

He also managed Flipkart's logistics arm Ekart. Seth quit Flipkart abruptly in May this year, citing personal reasons, handing over the mantle to Krishnamurthy.

The COO position was once held by Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal, while Sachin Bansal was the CEO. Binny Bansal is now the group CEO.

Flipkart has apparently seen several top exits in last 18 months even as the CEO mantle was handed over to once Tiger Global executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy. Earlier this year Ekart head Saikiran Krishnamurthy, product head Surojit Chatterjee, and marketing head Samardeep Subandh quit Flipkart. In October last year, the firm’s chief financial officer Sanjay Baweja resigned and, in April last year, the chief product officer Punit Soni had resigned, just after a year of joining.

The legal trouble for Flipkart comes at a time when its bid to acquire Snapdeal has hit a roadblock. Snapdeal’s board last week rejected Flipkart’s initial buyout offer of USD 550 million. Flipkart in April raised USD 1.5 billion from Tencent, Microsoft, and eBay.

In the recent past, internal battle between top executives and company founders – Infosys-Vishal Sikka and Tata group-Cyrus Mistry has come to the fore. Although Flipkart is on a different standing when compared to Infosys or Tata, the e-commerce player does face the threat of a long-standing legal battle over Seth’s accusation, which might deter senior CXOs from joining the Bangalore-based company.