Court revives fraud proceedings against Anil Ambani, rejects bid to halt ruling

The appeals were brought by a consortium including Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and audit firm BDO India, which had challenged a December 24, 2025 order by Justice Milind Jadhav.

In a major setback for industrialist Anil Ambani, the Bombay High Court on Monday set aside a single-judge order that had restrained banks from pursuing fraud proceedings against him, reviving lender action linked to his tenure at Reliance Communications.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam A Ankhad allowed appeals filed by lenders and auditors, ruling that the earlier interim relief was “perverse” and legally unsustainable.

The court also rejected Ambani’s request to pause the ruling for four weeks, stating that doing so would “perpetuate illegality.”

"As we have already held that the interim judgement is illegal and suffers from irregularities. Stay would amount to and perpetuate illegality. Therefore, the request for stay has been declined," the bench said.

The appeals were brought by a consortium including Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and audit firm BDO India, which had challenged a December 24, 2025 order by Justice Milind Jadhav.

That order had accepted Ambani’s plea that forensic audits conducted under Reserve Bank of India directions must meet statutory audit standards and had temporarily barred banks from acting on fraud classification notices.