The Bombay High Court has scuttled a last ditch attempt by the Anil Ambani company Reliance Naval and Engineering to prevent proceedings in the bankruptcy court, dismissing a petition by the company challenging the invocation of a corporate guarantee by IFCIBSE 0.63 %.
The Delhi-based financier had filed two insolvency petitions against Reliance Naval and Engineering and its subsidiary Reliance Marine and Offshore with the Ahmedabad bench of the NCLT last week. The insolvency petition aims to recover dues worth Rs 159 crore, including invoking a corporate guarantee.
“By challenging the invocation of the guarantee, the company had attacked the main premise of the bankruptcy case because under law the high court does not have jurisdiction over the bankruptcy case. Justice Dhanuka made out that this was the plan and declined ad interim relief for the company,” said a lawyer close to the case.
Reliance Naval and Reliance Marine were both given one week to file their responses in the bankruptcy court on November 27. However, instead of filing their response in that court the companies filed a petition seeking relief from the invocation of corporate guarantee in the Bombay High Court.
The case came up for hearing on Thursday, just one day ahead of the hearing date fixed by NCLT. The case comes up for hearing in Ahmedabad on Friday. Lenders led by SBI have lent close to Rs 9,000 crore to Reliance Naval and Engineering, the erstwhile Pipavav DefenceBSE 1.37 % which was acquired by Reliance Infrastructure in 2015. The loans have been classified as special mention account-2 or SMA-2 with banks for more than three years.
