Supreme Court refuses to stay LIC IPO, gives Centre 8 weeks to reply

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to put a stay order on the ongoing process of the initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). It was hearing the petitions challenging the validity of the LIC IPO. The pleas suggest that the IPO violates certain sections of the LIC Act, 1956.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the petitions against LIC’s IPO but has refused to interfere in it. However, the apex court has issued notice to the Centre relating to the petitions challenging the validity of the LIC IPO. The Centre or LIC needs to reply on the matter within eight weeks. A response from petitioners has to be made four weeks after that, SC said.

The decision was taken by a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and PS Narasimha who were hearing a batch of petitions filed in the top court against the LIC’s IPO. This decision means that there will be no intervention in the share allotment process which is being done.

The Supreme Court will now examine the validity of the amendments to the LIC Act, 1956 through the Finance Act, 2021. Additional Solicitor General of India appearing for the central government said this is one of the biggest IPOs in the history of India.

More than 73 lakh applicants were involved and 22.13 crores shares have been sold at premium of Rs 939 per share. The court noted that the IPO has received bids from 73 lakh applicants and it is expected to fetch Rs 22,500 crore to the government.

Meanwhile, advocate arguing on behalf of petitioners said that the legality of passing the decision to sell LIC IPO by the government as a money bill is wrong since the rights of public are involved.