HC quashes order staying proceedings against Anil Ambani to classify his bank accounts as fraud
Mumbai, Feb 23 (PTI) In a setback for industrialist Anil Ambani, the Bombay High Court on Monday heard a case against him and Reliance Communications Ltd. overturned a single interim order that had halted proceedings against him to classify his bank accounts as fraudulent.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad allowed appeals filed by three public sector banks and auditor firm BDO India LLP against the December 2025 interim order passed by a single bench of the HC.
The division bench termed it “illegal and perverse” while disrupting the single file order.
Ambani’s lawyers asked the HC to reverse its decision so that they could approach the Supreme Court, but the request was rejected.
Banks had last month objected to the single bank order dated December 2025 that provided interim relief to Ambani and his company. The decision cited violations of mandatory RBI rules and a classic case of banks “waking up from deep sleep” after years.
The single court order stayed all current and future actions by Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Baroda, stating that the action was based on a legally flawed forensic audit and violated the mandatory guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
In their appeal, the three banks said the forensic audit that led to the accounts being classified as “fraud” was legally valid and based on serious findings of siphoning and misuse of funds.
This, they claimed, was recorded in the report submitted by audit firm BDO LLP.
In their defense, Banks also stated that Ambani raised a technical objection to the forensic audit before a single panel.
They asked the division bench to quash the interim order of the single bench, claiming it was “perverse”.
Ambani had filed objections before the ex parte show cause notices issued by Indian Overseas Bank, IDBI and Bank of Baroda, seeking to declare his and Reliance Communications’ accounts as fraudulent accounts.
As an interim solution, he requested that the notifications be stopped and measures taken against any coercive action, on the grounds that BDO LLP did not have the authority to conduct the forensic audit as the signatory was not a chartered accountant.
Ambani claimed that BDO LLP was an accounting consultancy firm and not an audit firm.
The single bench agreed with Ambani and stopped the action of the banks.
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