Anil Ambani Withdraw's From Bombay High Court Plea Challenging Bank Of Baroda Order Classifying Reliance Account As 'Fraud'

Industrialist Anil Ambani on Friday (July 10) withdrew his writ petition from the Bombay High Court, by which he had challenged the September 4, 2025 order passed by the Bank of Baroda, classifying the loan accounts of Reliance Communications as 'fraud.'

A division bench of Justice Burgess Colabawalla and Justice Firdosh Pooniwalla allowed Ambani to withdraw his petition and disposed of the same as 'withdrawn.'

Notably, Ambani had petitioned the High Court challenging the order of the Bank by which his firm's loan accounts were categorised as 'fraud' citing mis-utilisation of borrowed funds, diversion of loan proceeds, unauthorised transactions, and improper use of inter-corporate deposits. He contended that the BDO report in the instant matter was commissioned by State Bank of India (SBI) on its own behalf as a lead bank of a consortium of banks. But admittedly and undisputedly, he argued, Bank of Baroda was not a part of the consortium of the banks which granted loans and thus the entire proceedings are illegal.

The bank through advocate Nishit Dhruva of MDP Legal had opposed the petition. 

It may not be out of place to mention that September 17, 2025, a division bench of Justice Riyaz Chagla and Justice Farhan Dubash had asked the Bank not to take any coercive action against Ambani, till further orders. 

However, while these proceedings were pending, single-judge Justice Milind Jadhav in a separate proceeding, initiated by Ambani against three banks - Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and the IDBI Bank, had stayed fraud classification proceedings initiated by them against him, after prima facie finding 'serious defects' in the forensic audit relied upon by the said banks.

Since the single-judge had stayed the fraud classification proceedings, Ambani did not press for further relief in the writ petition which had challenged Bank of Baroda's order classifying his accounts as 'fraud.'

However, on February 23, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad quashed and set aside Justice Jadhav's order, paving way for the three banks to proceed against the industrialist. 

Case Title: Anil D Ambani vs Bank of Baroda [Writ Petition (L) 29095 of 2025]