Essar Steel case: Gujarat High Court asks Standard Chartered Bank to approach single judge

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal filed by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) against a single judge’s order staying insolvency proceedings against Essar Steel at the National Company Law Tribunal. [caption id=“attachment_3780521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. News18[/caption] A bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice VM Pancholi said the bank should first approach Justice SG Shah, the single judge who passed the order yesterday. SCB has filed insolvency petition against Essar Steel before the NCLT. Justice Shah stayed the proceedings before the NCLT in response to Essar’s plea; the next hearing before him is on 7 July. The bank today moved the division bench seeking lifting of the stay, as the NCLT hearing is on 6 July. The division bench asked it to first approach Shah, and come to it on July 11 only if he doesn’t take up the matter in the meantime. The RBI had last month identified 12 accounts for insolvency proceedings with each of them having over Rs 5,000 crore of outstanding loans, accounting for 25 per cent of total NPAs of banks. Shah on Tuesday also sought a reply from RBI on the company’s contention that why only certain cases including that of Essar Steel should be accorded priority by the NCLT.