The Delhi High Court has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to maintain status quo with regard to accounts of Anil Ambani's firms – Reliance Communications (RCom), Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel, which have been declared by the bank as fraud accounts.

According to the plea, the circular allows banks to declare an account as fraud without giving any prior notice or communication to the account holder against the principles of natural justice.

Justice Prateek Jalan passed the order on a plea by erstwhile directors of the three companies challenging a 2016 circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding declaration of accounts as fraud by banks, news agency PTI reported.

The court while issuing notice on the petition sought response from the parties, and listed the matter for hearing on 13 January, Mint reported.

SBI and the RBI were granted the liberty to take any steps in the nature of an investigation or filing of complaint proceedings independent of the order declaring the accounts as “fraud account."

Earlier, SBI, the Union Bank of India (UBI) and the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) had marked Rcom account as fraud.