The Supreme Court has granted relief to Sterling Biotech and agreed to drop all criminal proceedings with respect to CBI, ED, as well as the attachments under PMLA, Fugitive Act, Black Money Act and Income Tax Act, subject to the deposit of Rs. 5100 crores towards full and final settlement with the lender banks and investigating agencies, by December 17, 2025.
The Supreme Court, however, permitted the petitioners to deposit the sum before the Registry of this Court in separate tranches, which shall be kept in a short-term interest-bearing fixed deposit account in any nationalised bank till final disbursement. Also, the Court directed that upon submitting the claims, the deposited amount shall be disbursed to the respective lender Banks on a proportionate basis in reference to the amount due towards them.
This way, the Supreme Court has put an end to the ongoing litigation of loan default since 2020, wherein the overseas companies had secured funds worth thousands of crores from foreign branches of the consortium of Indian banks, and diverted them for unauthorised purposes. The Court clarified that, since inception, it was of the view that if the petitioners are ready to deposit the amount as settled in OTS and public money comes back to lender banks, the continuation of the criminal proceedings would not serve any useful purpose.
The tenor of the proceedings apparently indicates peculiarity, with the intent to protect the public money and interest and to get the defalcated amount, added the Court.
A Two-Judge Bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi observed that the amount of defalcation in FIR was Rs. 5383 crores, whereas the One Time Settlement (OTS) with respect to all Indian Companies of the petitioners with the Banks was for a sum of Rs. 3826 crores and for foreign companies being guarantor was of Rs. 2935 crores, bringing the total sum to Rs. 6761 crores.
Out of the said amount, the Bench found that the petitioners have voluntarily deposited a fraction of the total amount under various heads, including as per the previous orders of this Court dated February 2020, August 2020, November 2021, February 2022, May 2022, September 2022, March 2024, and November 18, 2025, which comes to around Rs. 3507.63 crores, leaving the remaining dues to Rs. 3253.37 crores.
The Bench also found that the lender banks have initiated the proceedings under the IBC and had recovered Rs. 1192 crores. However, out of the total amount as specified in the OTS, which was higher than the amount as specified in the FIR, the remaining unpaid amount comes to Rs. 2061.37 crores. Therefore, after consultation with the lending banks, the investigating agencies in a sealed cover had demanded Rs. 5100 crores against the dues/recoveries which are the subject matter of the FIR and other criminal proceedings.
Appearances:
Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Vikram Chaudhri, AORs Nikilesh Ramachandran and Avadh Bihari Kaushik, along with Advocates Hemant Shah, Apoorva Agarwal, Sanjay Aabot, Devanshi Singh, Vishal Mann, Shambhavi Singh, Hemant Shah, Rishi Sehgal, Keshavam Chaudhri, Hargun Sandhu, Nikita Gill, and Muskaan Khurana, for the Petitioners
ASG Suryaprakash V Raju, Senior Advocate Atmaram NS Nadkarni, AORs Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Arvind Kumar Sharma, Malvika Kapila, Ishaan George, and B. Vijayalakshmi Menon, along with Advocates Rajan Kumar Chourasia, Kanu Agarwal, Annam Venkatesh, Zoheb Hussain, Samrat Goswami, Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Anuradha Dutt, Haaris Fazili, Kunal Dutt, Saurabh Singh, Yash Mittal, Prachi Pandey, Avinash Singh, and Deepti Arya, for the Respondents