The SLP was dismissed by Justices BN Kripal and SR Rajendra Babu at a hearing on September 20. However, the company will have to obtain the permission of the quasi-judicial Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction for selling any assets.

Company officials were not available for comment on the development.

UBI had filed the SLP against a September 1998 order of the Appellate Authority for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction that had allowed Dunlop to sell its non-encumbered assets. The apex court had passed an interim stay which was extended from time to time.

Dunlop slipped into the red during its nine-month fiscal to December 31, 1997, with a Rs 231.84 crore net loss that wiped out its entire net worth. However, in its previousfiscal to March 31, 1997, the company had posted Rs 5.14 crore net profit and paid out a 10 per cent dividend.

Last month, the BIFR rejected the company's plea to register it under Section 17(2) of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985. This would have allowed Dunlop to script a revival plan on its own.

The company was admitted under Section 17(3) of Sica and Industrial Development Bank of India was appointed as its operating agency. IDBI was asked to submit a revival plan within an eight week timeframe.

Dunlop management was asked to submit a revival plan to IDBI within four weeks from the date of hearing on August 9.