MUMBAI: Anil Ambani, erstwhile director of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM), on Tuesday withdrew a petition before the Bombay High Court to defer a personal hearing in a May 2024 show cause notice (SCN) issued to him by IDBI Bank in proceedings under RBI master guidelines on fraud risk management. He sought orders to restrain the hearing before the bank until he was furnished with all relevant material and provided a fair opportunity to respond. The SCN was in connection with a loan taken by RCOM of Rs 750 crore.When the vacation bench of Justice Sandesh Patil after hearing both sides, was not inclined to grant any urgent ad-interim relief, Ankit Lohia, counsel for Ambani, on instructions, informed the High Court that he would withdraw the petition and appear before the bank ‘under protest’ on October 30. The High Court granted Ambani liberty to raise all contentions which he raised in the petition before the bank as well. The High Court disposed of the petition as withdrawn and said it was not commenting on the merits of the matter.Lohia, along with advocates Ameet Naik and Abhishek Kale for Ambani, also sought that in case the order passed by the bank is adverse to him, he may be given liberty to raise all contentions later. Senior counsel Zarir Bharucha, with advocate Rishi Thakur for IDBI Bank, did not object to such a plea.Ambani submitted an initial response to the SCN in June 2024, and in June 2025, after a year, said IDBI Bank responded by enclosing a copy of the Forensic Audit Report (FAR). The FAR alleged some purported related party transactions within the group were suspicious, and Ambani, in July 2025, sought supporting documents relied on in the FAR. The bank provided annexures in August.On September 11, IDBI called for a personal hearing, and Ambani again requested for ‘underlying’ documents. On September 25, IDBI again called Anil Ambani for a hearing, and he requested a list of 17 documents relied on and sought to defer the hearing, noting that a related fraud declaration matter was pending before HC. The bank, on October 9, denied his request for underlying documents calling it irrelevant to the SCN saying annexures were shared, prompting Anil Ambani to move the HC earlier this month arguing that a personal hearing cannot meaningfully proceed without prior disclosure of the material relied upon.
