A consortium led by State Bank of India moved the Supreme Court of India seeking release of Rs 5,100 crore in Sterling Biotech dues, as the bench sought responses and listed the matter for hearing on March 23.
NEW DELHI: A consortium of secured lenders, led by the State Bank of India, representing creditors of Sterling Biotech Ltd (promoted by Chetan and Nitin Sandesara), has approached the Supreme Court seeking release of their claim amounts from the Rs 5,100 crore deposited in the court registry. The lenders say their total outstanding against the Group companies amounts to Rs 19,283.77 crore.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar took on record the consortium’s joint application and directed that it be served on Solicitor General Tushar Mehta; the matter is listed for further hearing on March 23. Central Government Standing Counsel Nishant Gautam accepted notice on behalf of the Union.
The application includes a consolidated computation of claims across ten Sterling group entities, including Sterling Biotech Ltd, Sterling Oil Resources Ltd, Sterling SEZ Ltd and other domestic and overseas companies, and explains the methodology proposed for distributing the court-deposited sum.
The application states,
“The applicants are the Secured Lenders of M/s. Sterling Biotech Ltd. and its Group Companies and are jointly filing the present application seeking directions for disbursal of their respective claim amounts, which stand deposited with the Registry of this court by the petitioners, in terms of the order/directions dated November 19, 2025 passed by this court,”
According to the lenders, after a series of joint meetings they agreed on a uniform formula to calculate total dues and to apportion the Rs 5,100 crore among secured lenders on a proportionate basis. The meetings culminated on January 29, 2026, when the banks finalised the claims submission process and the distribution mechanism.
The proposed methodology aggregates all domestic and foreign-currency exposures, converts foreign loans to rupees at a fixed exchange rate of Rs 63 per US dollar reflecting the average 2015 rate when most accounts became non-performing and applies a uniform interest rate of nine percent per annum from the date of NPA, compounded annually. Amounts already recovered through insolvency processes have been adjusted to arrive at the final outstanding.
Using this approach, the lenders say total admitted dues across all accounts tally to Rs 19,283.77 crore, and the deposited Rs 5,100 crore should be distributed proportionately according to each lender’s share of total dues. The application illustrates the method with an example: if total dues are Rs 10,000 crore and a bank’s exposure is Rs 1,000 crore, that bank would receive 10 percent of the Rs 5,100 crore.
A detailed chart filed with the court sets out individual banks’ exposures and their proposed shares. The figures presented indicate SBI claimed Rs 2,664.72 crore and would receive Rs 695.03 crore; UCO Bank’s claim of Rs 2,980.10 crore corresponds to Rs 777.28 crore; Union Bank of India’s Rs 2,499.64 crore to Rs 651.97 crore; and Bank of India’s Rs 2,235.65 crore to Rs 583.11 crore. Other allocations include Punjab National Bank (claimed Rs 1,988.04 crore; proposed Rs 518.53 crore), Indian Bank (Rs 1,750.40 crore; proposed Rs 456.55 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 1,581.98 crore; proposed Rs 482.92 crore) and Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 1,257.36 crore; proposed Rs 327.95 crore). The same proportional formula was applied to smaller exposures.
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The lenders told the bench,
“It is reiterated that the aforesaid process and the methodology of distribution and the respective share of each secured lender bank have been arrived at with the consensus of the secured lenders. All the Secured lenders of SBL Group of Companies as mentioned… have accepted the said share,”
The application notes that a few lenders have yet to formally confirm acceptance, though their dues were calculated on the same basis.
The consortium has requested the court’s nod to disburse the Rs 5,100 crore pursuant to the agreed formula, with payments to be made to the bank accounts specified in the application.
On November 19 last year, the Supreme Court accepted a settlement in which the Sandesara brothers agreed to deposit Rs 5,100 crore as full and final settlement of claims arising from the proceedings. The amount was deposited in the court registry in December 2025, and the court thereafter implemented its earlier order quashing certain proceedings.
The dispute originally arose from petitions by the Sandesaras seeking quashing of multiple actions, including FIRs by the CBI and ED, matters under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, the Companies Act, and the Black Money Act.
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