2026:BHC-OS:1450 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION PETITION NO. 104 OF 2025 Aditya Birla Housing Finance Ltd. …..PETITIONER : VERSUS :

Axis Bank Limited & Ors. ….RESPONDENTS Digitally signed by NEETA NEETA SHAILESH Ms. Megha Gupta with Ms. Lavanita Chityala and Ms. Pranjali Khemnar SHAILESH SAWANT SAWANT Date: i/b. Hedgehog & Fox LLP,for the Petitioner.

2026.01.20

09:01:59 +0530 Mr. Cyrus Ardeshir, Senior Advocate with Mr. Rushil Mathur, Mr. Aadil Parsurampuria, Mr. Yash Pitroda, Ms. Amrita Natrajan and Mr. Smit Solanki i/b. Mr. Mayur Shetty c/o. Kocchar & Co., for Respondent No.1.

Mr. Sarfaraz Shaikh i/b. Mr. Rishi Kapoor and Mr. Ankur G. for Respondent Nos.2 to 5.

CORAM : SANDEEP V. MARNE, J.

JUDGMENT RESD. ON : 6 JANUARY 2026. JUDGMENT PRON. ON : 19 JANUARY 2026.

JUDGMENT :

1) This is a petition filed under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Arbitration Act) seeking interim measures before commencement of arbitral proceedings. Petitioner seeks a direction against Respondent No.1-Axis Bank to handover title deeds of the subject property to it during pendency of hearing and final disposal of arbitral proceedings between the parties.

2) Petitioner is a private limited company engaged in the business of housing finance. Respondent No.1 is a banking company doing business under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Respondent Nos. 2 to 5 are the borrowers, who had availed credit facilities in the form of cash credit (CC) and overdraft (OD) facility from Respondent No.1. The borrowers approached the Petitioner on 17 July 2023 for sanction of credit facilities of 4,70,05,000/- against security. The loan was applied for the purpose of taking over the CC and OD facilities sanctioned by Respondent No.1. to the borrowers. In furtherance of their application, the borrowers submitted copies of foreclosure letters and statement of accounts issued by Respondent No.1 relating to CC and OD facilities. Petitioner sanctioned loan of Rs.4,70,00,000/- in favour of the borrowers on 31 August 2023. According to the Petitioner, the loan was sanctioned against mortgage of the property bearing Plot No. 25, Survey No.20, Dwarka Service Centre Marble Market, South West Delhi, Delhi owned by Mr. Surendra Kumar Agarwal (subject property). It appears that the subject property was also mortgaged with Respondent No.1 for CC and OD facilities and accordingly, title deeds of the property were in possession of Respondent No.1-Bank.

3) On 4 September 2023, Petitioner and borrowers entered into loan agreement, which contained arbitration clause. On 12 September 2023, the borrowers also executed irrevocable Power of Attorney in favour of Petitioner which, inter alia authorized the Petitioner to collect the title documents of subject property from Respondent No.1. At the request of the borrowers, Petitioner transferred amount of Rs.17,05,144/- in CC account of Axis Bank of Respondent No.1 and Rs.96,25,003/- in OD account of Respondent No.5. On 13 September 2023, Respondent No.5 issued request for debit freeze in respect of the OD facilities. According to the Petitioner, despite disbursal of the aforesaid amounts, Respondent No.1 failed to release the title deeds. Petitioner therefore requested Respondent No.1 by letter dated 10 January 2024 to hand over the title deeds of the subject property. On 8 February 2024, the borrowers’ accounts were classified into Non- Performing Assets (NPA) as per the RBI guidelines. On 19 June 2024, Petitioner issued notice to Respondent No.1 for handing over title deeds of the subject property. On 15 July 2024, Respondent No.1 replied to the Petitioner inter alia contending that sum of Rs.88,90,126/- was pending in relation to OD facility in the accounts of the borrowers. Petitioner sent letter dated 27 August 2024 to Respondent No.1 contending that all the outstanding dues in CC and OD facility were duly paid by the Petitioner.

4) In the above background,