SC refuses to grant relief on pleas seeking stay on LIC IPO
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant any interim relief and stay the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) initial public offering (IPO) share allotment on a batch of pleas filed by some policy holders.
The court should be reluctant to grant any interim relief in matters of commercial investments and IPO, said a bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and P.S. Narasimha.
“We are not inclined to grant any interim relief,” the bench said as it issued notice to the Centre and LIC on the batch of pleas seeking their response within eight weeks.
On interim relief the court must be guided by the well settled principle of prima facie case, balance of convenience, and whether there is any irreparable injury, the bench said.
The LIC IPO opened on May 4 for retail and other investors and is set to be allotted on
Thursday.
The bench noted that one of the pleas has challenged the interim order passed by Bombay High Court and disposed it, saying the writ petition before the high court will be transferred to the apex court.
The top court tagged the batch of pleas with a pending matter referred to a Constitution bench on passage of the Finance Act, 2021, as a money bill.
LIC’s mega IPO, India’s largest to date, closed n Monday with nearly 3 times subscription, predominately lapped up by domestic retail and institutional buyers, though foreign investor participation was muted.
The government, which raised ₹20,500 crore from the sale of 3.5% of its stake in the country’s largest insurer, however shrugged of the muted participation of foreign investors, saying the issue was an example of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (selfreliant India) and saw a lot of interest from a cross section of investors.
Department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey termed the response to the IPO “tremendous”. The issue saw good participation from all categories of investors, he said.
The anchor portion of the IPO was subscribed more than 70% by domestic institutions, including mutual funds, and insurance companies.