The high court now ordered the Delhi High Court to consider the matter on October 6, adding that SBI is free to request a modification of the stay order.
Anil Ambani. (Photo: Reuters)
On Thursday, the Supreme Court gave Anil Ambani a break by rejecting a statement from the State Bank of India seeking vacation or stay in Personal Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings against him.
The high court now ordered the Delhi High Court to consider the matter on October 6, adding that SBI is free to request a modification of the stay order.
Previously, on August 21, the NCLT had agreed to hear SBI’s statement against Anil Ambani. However, the Delhi High Court had suspended the proceedings after Anil Ambani addressed the court challenging certain provisions of the IBC.
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Anil Ambani had opposed the invocation of personal guarantees under the Corporate Debtors Regulations, 2019.
It should be noted that the IBC had covered only Indian companies and no promoters until November last year. However, the new rules are applicable against personal guarantees against loans of over 1 billion rupees or more.
The SBI had also invoked personal guarantees from Sanjay Singhal, who is a promoter for Bhushan Power and Steel on September 7. Bhushan Power and Steel had defaulted on loans worth Rs 48 billion, much lower than Ambani’s installments.
India’s largest public lender had previously invoked a personal guarantee against Anil Ambani in January 2018 and sent him a notice. Ambani has failed to repay the loans even after several reminders from the bank.
SBI had previously provided credit lines of Rs 565 crore and Rs 635 crore to the respective now insolvent Reliance Communications and Reliance Infratel in 2016. In return, Ambani had provided personal guarantees worth Rs 1,200 under the Personal Guarantee Deed in September, 2016.
However, both RCom and Reliance Infratel had defaulted on their loans and their accounts were subsequently declared as NPA as of August 2017.
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