Order classifying Anil Ambani’s loan account as ‘fraudulent’ withdrawn: Canara Bank to HC
Mumbai (PTI): The Canara Bank on Thursday informed the Bombay High Court that it has withdrawn its order classifying as “fraudulent” the loan account of a firm linked to industrialist Anil Ambani.
After the bank’s disclosure, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale disposed of the petition filed by Ambani challenging the bank’s order, saying nothing survives in it.
The bench said the withdrawal order shall be informed to the Reserve Bank of India.
The loan account concerned Ambani’s firm Reliance Communications, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings.
On November 8, 2024, the bank classified the loan account as “fraud” for reasons including that a Rs 1,050 crore loan extended in 2017 was “routed” to a group company to pay other liabilities to connected or related parties.
The order was based on the RBI’s master circular related to fraud accounts that laid guidelines for such declarations.
In February this year, the HC stayed the order pending hearing of the plea.
At the time, the HC had questioned whether the RBI would take action against banks that have repeatedly defied its master circular and the Supreme Court’s ruling, which mandates that borrowers must be given a hearing before their accounts are declared "fraudulent".
Ambani had challenged the Canara Bank’s order, arguing that he was not given a hearing before his loan account was classified as fraudulent.
The industrialist had contended that the fraud classification was issued on November 8, 2024, but was only communicated to him on December 25, after the HC had already stayed a similar classification in a related matter.
Ambani further claimed that Canara Bank had informed the RBI about the fraud classification as early as September 6, 2024, even before officially issuing the order.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
