In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court of India restored the rights of a consortium of lenders led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to claim ₹3,628 crore in dues from Reliance Infratel, a company facing insolvency. The court's decision overturned earlier orders from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and its appellate tribunal, which had stripped the lenders of their status as financial creditors. The Supreme Court stated that the corporate guarantees provided by Reliance Infratel constitute financial debt under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, and emphasized that the lenders should be included in the committee of creditors (CoC) for the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process. The court criticized the NCLT's decisions as legally unsustainable and noted that the claims of the lenders were valid despite challenges from Doha Bank Q.P.S.C, which argued that the guarantees were insufficiently stamped and improperly disclosed. The ruling reinforces the rights of financial creditors in insolvency proceedings and clarifies the legal standing of corporate guarantees in such cases.