The country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday denied there has been any laxity on the part of the banks in seeking reliefs against Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), its promoters and holding/associated company.
“As leader of the consortium, we strongly deny the media reports which appear to be based on hearsay and conjecture without any reference to the factual position in the matter,” SBI said in a press release.
The lender said that on February 26, it moved Debts Recovery Tribunal (DRT) Bengaluru for advancement of the matter which was listed for hearing on March 8. DRT advanced the matter to February 29 as February 27 and 28 were holidays being Saturday & Sunday respectively, it said.
“As senior advocates had advised that it will not be possible to directly approach the Supreme Court for seeking reliefs in respect of the deal, SBI additionally filed four applications in DRT Bengaluru seeking various reliefs,” the lender said.
SBI then pointed out that on March 2, DRT Bengaluru heard arguments only on the application seeking garnishee relief against Diageo and USL and posted the matter to March 04.
As DRT Bengaluru did not grant any relief on March 2, SBI filed a writ petition before the Karnataka High Court on March 3 and requested the court to list it for hearing on March 4.
Since no relief came forth from DRT or High Court, SBI filed Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court on March 8 (5th, 6th and 7th being holidays) seeking reliefs, it further stated. SBI said that upon hearing conducted on March 09, the Supreme Court had issued notice.
“In this matter the consortium of banks are currently fighting more than 20 cases in various courts including DRT from June 2013 and number of hearings held are in excess of 500 with more than 180 adjournments,” SBI clarified.