MUMBAI, Oct. 4 -- The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by industrialist Anil Ambani seeking to quash the State Bank of India's (SBI's) order classifying the loan account of his now defunct company, Reliance Communications (RCom), as "fraud". While pronouncing the order, a division bench of justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale said that Ambani's plea lacked merit. A detailed copy of the judgement was not available at the time of going to press. A spokesperson for Ambani said, "We are awaiting the order. Once we have reviewed it, we will evaluate the next course of action, as legally advised." SBI had classified RCom's loan accounts as fraudulent in June last year, alleging misappropriation of funds through transactions violating loan terms. The company is undergoing insolvency proceedings. Ambani then moved the high court, arguing that SBI had not followed the principles of natural justice, as it did not grant him a hearing. Certain documents, based on which the classification orders were passed, were not provided to him initially, and were furnished only after six months, his petition claimed. The high court's dismissal of Ambani's plea comes two months after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) carried out searches at premises linked to RCom and Ambani in Mumbai as part of its probe into the alleged bank loan fraud case, which was registered based on SBI's complaint. The agency also registered the first information report (FIR) in the matter, citing a complaint sent by SBI deputy general manager Jyoti Kumar on August 18, "regarding the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal misconduct" by RCom, Ambani, unknown public servants and others. The state-owned bank alleged that it was cheated to the tune of Rs.2,929.05 crore. The FIR stated that the accused, as part of a criminal conspiracy, obtained credit facilities from SBI in favour of RCom through misrepresentation and subsequently misutilised or diverted the funds received from the bank. During one of the hearings, senior advocates Darius Khambata and Prateek Seksaria, representing Ambani, submitted that the SBI's order classifying the loan accounts as "fraud" was arbitrary and in violation of due process. Other nationalised banks had also issued similar orders classifying Ambani's loan accounts related to RCom as "fraudulent". Earlier, in February, the court reprimanded banks and said they could not simply "cut, copy, and paste" orders declaring accounts as "defaulter" or "fraud" in the case. While Canara Bank informed the high court in July that it was revoking the classification, Bank of Baroda in September was restrained from taking any coercive action against Ambani in pursuance to its classification....