Background facts of the case

1. The present Company Petition is filed under section 95(1) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as “IBC, 2016/Code") read with Rule 7(2) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application to Adjudicating Authority for Insolvency Resolution Process for Personal Guarantors to Corporate Debtors) Rules, 2019 by STATE BANK OF INDIA (“hereinafter referred to as SBI/Financial Creditor/FC”) for the purpose of initiating Insolvency Resolution Process against ANIL DHIRAJLAL AMBANI (“hereinafter referred to as Personal Guarantor/Respondent”), who stood guarantor to the credit facilities extended by the Applicant to Reliance Communication Limited (“hereinafter referred to as RCOM”) and Reliance Infratel Limited (“hereinafter referred to as RITL”) for default of Rs.853,25,31,824.21/- (Rupees Eight Hundred and Fifty-Three Crores, Twenty-Five Lakhs, Thirty-One thousand, Eight Hundred and Twenty-Four and Twenty-One Paise Only) as on 01.03.2019. The Date of Default, as specified in Part-III of the present petition is 31.01.2019 for the Personal Guarantor.

2. It is stated by the Financial Creditor that the Personal Guarantor i.e. Mr. Anil Dhirajlal Ambani was the Chairman of the Reliance ADA Group, the umbrella organization under which RCOM and RITL functioned. RCOM has 96% shareholding in RITL. RCOM is a telecommunication company, providing services of GSM (Voice; 2G, 3G, 4G), fixed line broadband and voice, and Direct-To-Home (DTH) in India. Whereas, RITL is a subsidiary of RCOM and operated as an independent wireless tower company. RCOM in or around 2015-16 approached the Project Finance Strategic Business Unit of State Bank of India, SBI i.e. the Financial Creditor seeking credit facilities to the tune of Rs. 565,00,00,000/- (Rupees Five Hundred Sixty-five Crores) for the purpose of repayment of certain existing financial indebtedness. Similarly, another Company viz. Reliance Infratel Limited (RITL) one of its sister concerns also approached the Financial Creditor for the credit facilities of Rs. 635,00,00,000/- (Rupees Six Hundred Thirty-five Crores) for the repayment of existing financial indebtedness. The Financial Creditor under the Rupee Loan Facilities Agreement dated 29.08.2016, as amended and restated on 08.09.2016 provided the aforesaid amounts as loan respectively to RCOM and RITL. The Respondent, along with other securities, provided personal guarantee under a Personal Guarantee Deed dated 23.09.2016 in favour of the Financial Creditor in respect of these credit facilities.

3. It is stated by the Financial Creditor that, undisputedly, that both the RCOM and RITL committed defaults in repayment in and around January 2017. The accounts were retrospectively declared as Non-Performing Account (NPA) with effect from 26.08.2016 pursuant to the Risk Based Supervision during the year 2017. This Tribunal vide order dated 15.05.2018/17.05.2018 admitted the batch of Company Petitions filed by Ericsson India Private Limited under section 9 of the Code initiating Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) against RITL (Company Petition No. 1385 of 2017) and RCOM (Company Petition No. 1387 of 2017). Although this Adjudicating Authority had admitted the CIRP of RCOM by order dated 15.05.2018, the said admission was stayed by the Hon’ble NCLAT on 30.05.2018. The appeal was later dismissed as withdrawn on 13.04.2019, following which this Authority, by order dated 07.05.2019, directed continuation of the CIRP proceedings. Further, by order dated 21.06.2019, Mr. Aneesh N. Nanavati was appointed as the Resolution Professional (‘RP’) for the RCOM entities. The period between 30.05.2018 and 30.04.2019 spent before the NCLAT was excluded from the CIRP period by order dated 09.05.2019 in MA 1766/2019.

4. It is submitted by the Financial Creditor that, in view of the default in payment of the credit facilities, the Applicant invoked the personal guarantee on 31.01.2019 and issue