Muristek
New Delhi, February 3
A consortium of 27 banks on Thursday told the Supreme Court the money lent to Future Retail Ltd (FRL) belonged to the depositors and to safeguard the "public interest", the entire assets of FRL can be subjected to open bids by Amazon and Reliance with a reserve price of Rs 17,000 crore.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, hearing FRL's plea seeking a direction to the banks that no coercive action be taken against it for a certain time period due to non-payment of debt, did not pass any interim order and adjourned the hearing at the request of the company.
At the outset, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for FRL, said the hearing be deferred for a week or 10 days so that the company may try to work out some kind of settlement over payment of dues.
The Bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, took note of the submissions and said the hearing may be deferred as it was FRL's plea only.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the consortium of banks, raised preliminary objections and said FRL's plea was not maintainable as violation of fundamental rights cannot be alleged against banks acting out of contracts. Banks' contracts involved depositors' interest and hence pertained to public interest which needed to be safeguarded first, he said.
"We have a loan of Rs 17,000 crore. If it is pushed back to laterhellip;, as requested by FRL, the loan will grow to Rs 25,000 crore...and ultimately they are not certain, whether Amazon or Reliance will get it (FRL). So we are looking at an uncertain litigation," he said. If Amazon wins, then Rs 7,000 crore will come in, but our loan amount only to FRL is Rs 17,000 crore.
"If Reliance wins, Future will get Rs 25,000 crore, but for the entire group. So in any case, the banks will have to invoke the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code," Dwivedi said. — PTI
'Safeguard public interest'
A consortium of 27 banks has suggested the apex court to sell the entire assets of FRL through open bids by Amazon and Reliance with a reserve price of Rs17,000 cr A Bench headed by CJI NV Ramana did not pass any interim order and adjourned the hearing at the request of FRL The SC, on February 1, had observed that no party will benefit from consequential punitive actions against FRL for defaults in loan repayment and asked the consortium to file the response to a plea by the firm