The ABCL case has been assigned to a bench comprising two members -- NP Bagchee and NP Singh -- following its reference to seek protection under section 3(1)(0) of the Sick Industrial Companies (special provisions) Act, 1985, BIFR sources said.

Launched by film star Amitabh Bachchan, the first entertainment company had planned to notch up Rs 1000 crore by the year 2000. It had sought to market products and services covering the entire gamut of the entertainment industry - from film production and distribution, audio cassettes and video discs, production and marketing of television software, media buying to event and celebrity management.

However, following the fiasco of Miss World contest in Bangalore and several bombed films, the company accumulated losses of Rs 70.82 crore, wellabove its Rs 60.52 crore net worth as on September 30, 1998.

The company's board, in February this year, passed a unanimous resolution that "in view of the accumulated losses being in excess of the company's net worth, based on the audited accounts for the year ending September 30,1998, the company has prima facie become a sick company."

Among the half a dozen suits filed in the Mumbai high court by the frustrated creditors against ABCL, Canara Bank has been specifically told a few days back to seek the consent of BIFR before appointing a court receiver and launch proceedings against ABCL to recover its Rs 10 crore advanced loan.

Canara Bank had approached the court to seek permission for attaching the properties of the Bachchans' under the guarantors' clause.

Meanwhile, a worried Canara Bank has decided to oppose ABCL from being declared sick as it would prove extremely difficult for creditors to collect their dues.

The Bachchans have been alleged to have taken out the entire Rs 15 crore profit theABCL earned in the first year and extended it as loans and advances to friends and two of their privately-held companies. The star duo are also said to have placed 87.5 lakh shares of the company with friends at par while two private placements were done at Rs 70 and Rs 95.

The bank has charged Bachchan and his wife Jaya for non-payment of bank advances provided by way of open-cash credit facility totalling Rs 2.4 crore, overdraft against book debts amounting to Rs 5.6 crore, foreign letters of credit worth Rs 2.5 crore and guarantee facility to the tune of Rs 3.5 crore.

Expecting a meteoric rise of the company, even public sector banks like Canara Bank and Central Bank of India had participated in ABCL's private placement issue, shelling out Rs 95 for every share in April 1997.