The Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat of Supreme Court today declined to vacate the stay granted by the Delhi High Court on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) proceedings against the Reliance Group Chairman as a relief to Anil Ambani.
The Court noted that SBI is at liberty to seek a modification of this stay order from the Delhi High Court and said that the matter may be taken up by the High Court on October 6.
State Bank of India (SBI) had moved the Supreme Court against the order passed by the Delhi High Court in August, which had stayed the IBC proceedings against Ambani in relation to a Rs 1,200 crore loan disbursed by SBI to two of Ambani’s firms. SBI had invoked the personal guarantee that was furnished by Anil Ambani.
Ambani in his plea has challenged the constitutionality of the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Personal Guarantors to Corporate Debtors) Regulations, 2019.
The Centre and the IBBI had opposed the stay of the insolvency process saying it could lead to the guarantor “frittering” away his assets.
Also Read: Delhi HC Stays Insolvency Proceedings Against Anil Ambani For Default of Rs 1200 Crores To SBI
SBI too had raised similar apprehensions during the hearing of Anil Ambani . It also urged the court to allow the resolution professional appointed by the NCLT to go on with his work and give a report, but the bench did not agree to it.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on August 20 had directed initiation of insolvency proceedings against Ambani under the personal guarantee clause of the bankruptcy law.
It had ordered the appointment of a resolution professional and asked SBI to take the necessary action.
The NCLT had also said both RCom and RITL committed default in repayment around January 2017.
