HDFC Bank and Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMMT), which owns Mumbai's popular Lilavati Hospital, are currently entangled in legal and loan defaulting disputes. The spat between Lilavati and India's largest lender has kept investors jittery about HDFC Bank's share price, which is trading in a narrow range on June 12, Thursday.
Timeline of HDFC Bank-Lilavati Trust Feud:
Surprisingly, HDFC Bank and Lilavati have been linked to each other for nearly three decades. It all started in 1995 with a company called Splendour Gems Ltd.
1. 1995: During this year, HDFC Bank, along with other consortiums of banks, credited loans to Splendour Gems Ltd, which is owned by the Mehta Family. The Kirtilal Manilal Mehta Family owns Lilavati Trust, which was founded by Kishor Mehta, who is the son of Kirtilal Manilal Mehta & Lilavati Mehta.
2. 2001: Splendour Gems was officially declared a defaulter in 2001, and HDFC Bank was seeking various options to recover the defaulted loan from Splendour.
3. 2004: In this year, HDFC Bank received a 'recovery certificate' from the Debt Recovery Tribunal.
4. 2025: After more than two decades, Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust launched a series of allegations against HDFC Bank's CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan and eight others on June 8, 2025. The trust claims that HDFC Bank's CEO is involved in several financial frauds and misappropriation of the Trust.
Mehta Family, once again, through Lilavati Kirtilal Medical Trust, has filed a complaint against HDFC Bank, its MD & CEO and other senior officials.
HDFC Bank retaliated by filing a legal case against Lilavati Trust and denied all the allegations against the CEO and others.
HDFC Bank's Legal Action On Lilavati:
On June 11, in its regulatory filing, HDFC Bank said, "We reserve all rights to pursue appropriate legal remedies, including but not limited to recovery, enforcement and defamation proceedings against the erring parties."
HDFC Bank clarified the following:
"1. The allegations and insinuations made by the trustees are devoid of any iota of truth whatsoever. Neither the Bank nor its MD & CEO have engaged in any activity that is illegal, unethical or improper.
2. We are fully compliant with the laws of the land and follow the highest standards of governance and ethics.
3. The content, timing and manner of allegations demonstrate the devious objective of preventing the Bank from carrying out its legal mandate of recovery and enforcement.
4. The Bank reiterates that it has commenced the process of taking legal action permissible under law to vindicate its position."
HDFC Bank reiterated that allegations by the trustees of Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMMT) against the Bank and its MD & CEO ARE "repeated false, malicious and defamatory allegations and insinuations."
"We are concerned about all our stakeholders and are on the verge of taking strong legal actions as per expert advice, against those who are initiating these baseless allegations with malafide and ulterior motives or involved in propagating the same," HDFC Bank's statement said.
Lilavati Trust's Allegations On HDFC Bank:
In another statement that was shared with GoodReturns, Lilavati Trust pointed out that despite repeated public claims and legal accusations, Mr Sashidhar Jagdishan or HDFC Bank has never produced a single official loan ledger or agreement in court regarding its supposed transaction with LKMM Trust. Even more concerning, various documents from the bank reflect widely inconsistent loan amounts for instance, Rs 4.8 crore was cited initially, Rs 450 crore in another filing, and now Rs 65.22 crore which are just three examples of many of the companies in question.
"It's a deliberate pattern of confusion, contradiction, and concealment that demands answers:
- Where is the loan agreement and ledger produced by HDFC showing a borrowing by the trust and Permanent Trustee, Prashant Mehta?
- How does a leading bank, issue completely different figures in different courts of the borrower company in question?
- LKMM and Permanent Trustee Prashant Kishor Mehta have served a Rs 1,000 crore defamation notice on CEO and MD, Mr. Sashidhar Jagdishan and HDFC Bank on total malicious and motivated attack by them," said Lilavati Trust's statement on June 11.
"A Rs 4.9 crore loan. Or was it Rs 65.22 crore? Or Rs 450 crore? Yet, despite all the noise, not a single official loan ledger has been presented in court of LKMM trust or Prashant Mehta," said Prashant Mehta, Permanent Trustee. "How can one of India's largest banks make three different claims about a single loan, and not back it up with a basic loan agreement and ledger?"
Thereby, the LKMM Trust and Prashant Mehta maintain it has never taken a loan from HDFC Bank, and these inconsistencies support that claim, rather than refute it. The Bank's refusal to present even basic documents in court undermines the credibility of the entire case and hints at deliberate narrative manipulation, it said.
Did Splendour Gems Default?
According to HDFC Bank's statement on June 8, 2025, Splendour Gems Limited a company owned by the Mehta family, defaulted on loan facilities granted by HDFC Bank along with the other consortium banks in 1995. The outstanding dues towards HDFC Bank, including interest, amount to approximately INR 65.22 crore as of May 31, 2025. Despite a recovery certificate issued by the Hon'ble Debts Recovery Tribunal in 2004 and subsequent enforcement actions, the dues remain unpaid. Splendour Gems Limited also has been borrowing from other Banks/institutions.
"In response to ongoing recovery proceedings, members of the Mehta family have initiated multiple legal actions and complaints against HDFC Bank and its senior officials. These include criminal complaints, minority rights petitions, and representations to regulatory authorities-all of which have been dismissed or are under legal challenge. HDFC Bank firmly believes that these allegations are retaliatory in nature and have mala fide intention solely at evading repayment of long-standing dues," said HDFC Bank's statement over the weekend.
HDFC Bank Share Price:
Following the feud, HDFC Bank's share price has witnessed little movement in its performance. At the time of writing, HDFC Bank's share price stood at Rs 1946.90 apiece, marginally down and near its intraday low of Rs 1942.90 apiece on BSE. Its market cap is around Rs 14,91,492.33 crore, making it India's largest bank.
In the past five sessions, HDFC Bank's shares have been broadly subdued. The stock's 52-week high and low is at Rs 1,996.30 and Rs 1,566.50 apiece.
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