SBI plea: Naresh Goyal, wife get relief from High Court

In temporary relief for Naresh Goyal and his wife Anita, Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the State Bank of India (SBI) not to take steps under criminal laws against the erstwhile promoters of Jet Airways until further order.

A division bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and Madhav Jamdar also allowed the country's largest lender two weeks' to file its response. The Goyals have challenged SBI's decision to club them with the airline in the list of "fraud accounts."

Senior advocates Milind Sathey and Navroz Seervai, along with law firm Naik Naik & Co, appeared for the Goyals in their separate petitions. Goyal and his wife argued that they were neither served a show-cause notice, nor were heard out by the bank before it took action.


While the Goyals were neither guarantors nor direct borrowers, including them in the 'fraud' list could trigger criminal proceedings and put them under the lens of investigative agencies.

Earlier, ET reported that the legal tussle with SBI was brewing to a point when some banks - under separate proceedings - are preparing to take a final call on classifying the Goyals as 'wilful defaulters'.

Last year, on June 22, the Mumbai bench of NCLT approved the resolution plan of Kalrock Capital and entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan for revival of the defunct Jet. The successful bidder had proposed a total cash flow of ₹1,375 crore for the revival of the carrier.

On May 20, the airline received Air Operator Certificate from the regulator, allowing it to resume commercial operations.