New Delhi, March 18 A consortium of secured lenders, including banks from Sterling Biotech Ltd, owned by the Sandesara brothers, has approached the Supreme Court seeking disbursement of their claim amounts of Rs 5,100 crore deposited in the apex court registry. They highlighted that the total outstanding owed by the Group companies was Rs 19,283.77 crore.
A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and A S Chandurkar, which on Monday took note of the joint application filed by the consortium, led by the State Bank of India, directed it to be served to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, and listed the matter for further hearing on March 23.
The banks presented a consolidated computation of claims across multiple Group entities, outlining the methodology adopted for distributing the amount.
"The applicants are the Secured Lenders of M/s. Sterling Biotech Ltd. and its Group Companies, and they are jointly filing this application seeking directions for the disbursement of their respective claim amounts, which have been deposited with the Registry of this court in accordance with the order/directions dated November 19, 2025, passed by this court," it stated.
The application stated that the claims relate to exposures across 10 companies within the Sterling group, including Sterling Biotech Ltd, Sterling Oil Resources Ltd, Sterling SEZ Ltd, and other domestic and overseas entities.
The lenders further stated that the claims were consolidated after a series of joint meetings, where a uniform formula was agreed upon for calculating total dues and apportioning the deposited amount.
"These joint meetings were held between the secured lender banks regarding the distribution of the claims. On January 29, 2026, in a meeting held between the secured lender banks of the group companies, it was decided to finalise the manner of submitting claims and the process of distributing the Rs 5,100 crore to the respective Secured Lender Banks on a proportionate basis, in reference to the amount due to them…" it said.
According to the application, the lenders decided to aggregate all domestic and foreign currency exposures, convert foreign loans into rupees at a fixed exchange rate of Rs 63 per US dollar (reflecting the average rate in 2015 when most accounts turned non-performing), and apply a uniform interest rate of nine per cent per annum from the date of NPA, with annual rests.
Amounts already recovered through insolvency proceedings were adjusted before arriving at the final outstanding figure.
The banks further informed the court that, after applying this methodology, the total admitted dues across all accounts were computed at Rs 19,283.77 crore, and the Rs 5,100 crore deposited pursuant to the court's earlier order is proposed to be distributed proportionately based on each lender's share in the total dues.
As an example, the application stated that if the total dues of all accounts of group companies are Rs 10,000 crore, with all the banks, and one company has Rs 1,000 crore dues, then this company will get a 10 per cent share in the Rs 5,100 crore.
The application includes a detailed chart of individual bank exposures and their corresponding share in the distribution pool.
According to the figures placed before the court, the SBI has claimed Rs 2,664.72 crore and is set to receive Rs 695.03 crore, while UCO Bank has claimed Rs 2,980.10 crore and is to receive Rs 777.28 crore.
Furthermore, Union Bank of India's dues of Rs 2,499.64 crore correspond to a proposed recovery of Rs 651.97 crore, and Bank of India's claim of Rs 2,235.65 crore translates to Rs 583.11 crore from the deposit.
Among other lenders, Punjab National Bank has claimed Rs 1,988.04 crore and is to receive Rs 518.53 crore, Indian Bank Rs 1,750.40 crore with a proposed share of Rs 456.55 crore, and Bank of Baroda Rs 1,581.98 crore with a corresponding allocation of Rs 482.92 crore. Indian Overseas Bank, which has computed its dues at Rs 1,257.36 crore, is set to receive Rs 327.95 crore. A similar formula was adopted for smaller exposure of funds by banks.
The banks 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, however, states that a few lenders are yet to formally confirm their acceptance, although their dues have been computed on the same basis.
The consortium has sought the court's approval to disburse the Rs 5,100 crore in accordance with this agreed formula, with payments to be made to the respective bank accounts as detailed in the application.
On November 19 last year, the top court accepted a settlement proposal under which the Sandesara brothers agreed to deposit Rs 5,100 crore as a full and final settlement of claims arising from these proceedings.
The amount was subsequently deposited in the court registry in December 2025, following which the court gave effect to its earlier order for quashing of proceedings.
The legal dispute arose from a batch of petitions filed by the Sandesara brothers seeking quashing of multiple proceedings, including FIRs registered by the CBI, ED, cases registered under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, the Companies Act and the Black Money Act.