Overview
- Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda have appealed a single-judge order that halted present and future fraud-classification steps against Anil Ambani and Reliance Communications.
- The single-judge had found prima facie defects in the banks’ reliance on a BDO LLP forensic audit and questioned compliance with statutory auditor-qualification requirements.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued the October 15, 2020 report recorded siphoning, diversion and misutilisation of funds and went unchallenged on merits for years.
- The banks contend the RBI’s 2024 Master Circular does not mandate an auditor affiliated with the Institute of Chartered Accountants and call the interim stay perverse and illegal.
- A division bench led by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad adjourned the matter to January 14 for further hearing.