NLCT reserves order on SBI plea against Anil Ambani

The National Company Law Tribunal reserved its order on the State Bank of India (SBI) against Anil Ambani to recover over Rs 1,200 crore under the personal guarantee clause of the bankruptcy law. The public sector lender had approached the NCLT under Section 97(3) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), seeking its intervention to direct the insolvency board to nominate a resolution professional (RP) to assess and submit a report on the assets owned by Ambani.

On Tuesday, a division bench of a judicial member Mohammed Ajmal and a technical member Ravikumar Duraisamy had reserved its order after hearing both the sides.

Senior counsel Venkatesh Dhond along with Ryan Dsouza is representing SBI, while Anil Ambani is represented by Senior Advocate Harish Salve.

The public sector lender had moved the insolvency court to recover more than Rs 1,200 crore under the personal guarantee clause of the bankruptcy law. The lender had said Ambani had personally guaranteed loans taken by Reliance Communications, currently undergoing insolvency proceedings, which the state-owned lender is trying to recover.

Recently, in March, the SBI board had approved a resolution plan for Reliance Communications in March that envisaged lenders recovering around Rs 23,000 crore of their money, entailing a haircut of nearly 50%. RCom owes nearly Rs 5,000 crore to SBI.

RCom filed for bankruptcy last year after which its secured debt was estimated at around Rs 33,000 crore while lenders submitted claims of around Rs 49,000 crore in August 2019.