After a single judge of the high court had dismissed Sterlite's plea on September 3, the company decided to go in appeal before a division bench.

The bench, which heard the case on Monday, dismissed the petition on the same grounds that it was too premature as Sebi was yet to pronounce its order.

Sources said the company may approach the Supreme Court before the September 9 hearing.

At the last hearing on September 3, Sterlite had sought an adjournment apparently in a bid to get enough time to seek judicial recourse.

The company has alleged that Sebi has been biased against it throughout the entire case, which is why it is desperately seeking the court's intervention.

Sterlite has also threatened to file a suit to claim damages against the markets'regulator over its stand in the matter.

Sterlite had failed to receive its shareholders' nod for going ahead with the open offer at an extra-ordinary general meeting. The firm had cited this as the reason for withdrawal of its offer. Sebi, however, decided to freeze the escrow account of Sterlite and issued a show cause notice asking it to justify the withdrawal of the offer.

Sterlite had a fortnight back written to the finance ministry bringing these points to its notice, but had not yet received any reply.

The counsel for Sebi argued that the petition should not be admitted, as Sebi is yet to take a view on the matter and is yet to deliver its verdict on the show cause issued to Sterlite.

Sterlite had made an offer to shareholders of Indal which was a mixture of cash and optionally convertible debentures. Sebi had asked the company to comply with the preferential issue guidelines before issuing the debentures. This was conveyed to the company just before the close of the offer. Sterlite felt that itneeded approval of shareholders through an EGM. This approval was not granted.

Simultaneously, the other bidder Alcan, hiked its offer price and succeeded in taking its stake up in Indal making it unviable for Sterlite to takeover the company.

However, a number of investors had lodged their shares with Sterlite as per the offer. But the company refused to accept these shares leading to cries of help from these investors. In response to this, Sebi froze the escrow account and slapped a show cause notice on Sterlite.