SBI knocks on NCLT's doors to recover Rs 1,200 cr from Anil Ambani

State Bank of India has filed an application in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to recover more than Rs 1,200 crore from Anil Ambani under the personal guarantee clause of the bankruptcy law.

Anil Ambani had given personal guarantee to the loans given to Reliance Communications and Reliance Infratel.

The tribunal, presided over by BSV Prakash Kumar, on Thursday gave Ambani a week to file reply to the application.

A spokesperson of Anil Ambani in a statement said: "The matter relates to a corporate loan availed by Reliance Communications (RCom) and Reliance Infratel (RITL) and is not a personal loan of Ambani." The RCom and RITL Resolution Plans were approved by 100 per cent of their lenders in March 2020. These Resolution Plans are awaiting the approval of NCLT, Mumbai, it said.

"Ambani will file suitable replies, and NCLT has not given any relief to the petitioner," the statement added.

In early 2019, Reliance Communications, once the flagship company of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance group, had filed for bankruptcy.

In March, the board of State Bank of India had approved a resolution plan for Reliance Communications that envisaged lenders recovering around Rs 23,000 crore of their money, entailing a haircut of nearly 50 per cent.