A view of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi. File
| Photo Credit: Sushil Kumar Verma
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (November 17, 2025) agreed to examine a petition alleging massive banking and corporate fraud involving Reliance Communications (RCom), its group companies and their promoter Anil Ambani.
A Bench of Chief Justice B.R. Gavai and Justice K. Vinod Chandran issued notice on the petition filed by former government secretary E.A.S. Sarma, for a court-monitored probe into the allegations. The respondents arraigned in the petition, besides the Union government, include the ED, CBI, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Mr. Anil Ambhani.
“This is bank fraud worth ₹20,000 crore,” advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Mr. Sarma, submitted.
The petition alleged systematic diversion of public funds, fabrication of financial statements and institutional complicity across multiple entities of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance ADA Group.
The plea also said the findings of systematic fraud and diversion of funds were judicially “recognised” in a Bombay High Court decision. It said RCom and its subsidiaries, Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom, had secured loans worth ₹31,580 crore between 2013 and 2017 from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI).
A forensic audit commissioned by SBI, received in October 2020, purportedly revealed “large-scale diversion of funds”, including the use of thousands of crores to repay unrelated loans. It said subsidiaries wrote off significant liabilities through alleged sham preference-share arrangements, which reportedly caused losses of over ₹1,800 crore.
A key concern raised in the PIL is SBI’s nearly five-year delay in acting upon the forensic audit report, eventually filing its complaint only in August 2025.
The petition alleged the prima facie presence of “institutional complicity”, and said the roles of bank officials and regulators have not been probed so far.
Published – November 18, 2025 12:11 pm IST
