Personal insolvency: SC to decide on transferring pending cases to itself

The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would pass orders on a batch of pleas filed by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) seeking transfer of all petitions pending before different high courts challenging the provisions of IBC with regard to personal insolvency.

The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would pass orders on a batch of pleas filed by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) seeking transfer of all petitions pending before different high courts challenging the provisions of IBC with regard to personal insolvency. A bench of Justices L N Rao, Hemant Gupta and Ajay Rastogi favoured transfer of all the writ petitions pending challenging provisions of IBC on insolvency of personal guarantors and reserved its verdict. Additional Solicitor General Madhavi Divan, appearing for IBBI, said that questions of law raised in these writ petitions pending before different high courts are same and relate to the provision of IBC. She argued that to avoid any conflicting ruling by different high courts, it would be appropriate if all the petitions are transferred to the top court for final adjudication.   Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for State Bank of India (SBI) said the issue raised in the writ petitions pending before different high courts is of national importance and does not affect any rights of the petitioners.

Some of the counsels appearing in the matter opposed the transfer of writ petitions and said that it would be better if the high courts decide the issue, and the top court will have the benefit of judgement of the high court. Among these writ petitions sought to be transferred is the case pending before the Delhi High Court regarding businessman Anil Ambani concerning his personal insolvency. On October 12, the Delhi High Court had sought the Centre and SBI's reply to the former RCom chairman's plea to include the Chinese banks, which have got a decree of USD 717 million against him from a court in United Kingdom, in the proceedings here related to recovery of Rs 1,200 crore loan granted to two of his companies. On September 17, the top court had dismissed a plea by SBI seeking resumption of insolvency proceedings against Ambani, to recover the loan.

The top court refused to vacate the stay granted by the Delhi High Court by its interim order on the personal insolvency proceedings against Ambani.  Ambani had given personal guarantees for the SBI loans of Rs 565 crore and Rs 635 crore to RCom and Reliance Infratel Ltd (RITL) in August 2016.

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