The Karnataka High Court on Friday admitted a petition filed by a consortium of 14 banks, led by State Bank of India (SBI), seeking winding up of the grounded Kingfisher Airlines Ltd (KAL).

The Court, however, postponed the process of issuance of public notice about the winding up process, while adjourning further hearing to the second week of January. It will then hear the arguments of the banks as well as the company on issuing public notice as per the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956.

Justice Anand Byrareddy passed the order after Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines was unable to demonstrate any concrete progress in reviving the company. Kingfisher in September had indicated to the Court that it was working out a scheme for revival.

During the hearing, Senior Counsel K.G. Raghavan, appearing for Kingfisher, submitted a copy of the e-mail sent to SBI, intimating the lender about the steps taken to revive the company and that certain foreign firms are engaged in due diligence of the records of the airline.

He also submitted that the company has now directly engaged the largest creditors in its process of reviving.

However, Senior Counsel S.S. Naganand, appearing for the banks, said no detail of the revival process had been mentioned in the communication and the company could have engaged the banks in the revival process about a month ago.

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