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6. Learned Senior Counsel would submit that the present petition is confined to seeking interdiction of the encashment of the Bank Guarantees, and in particular, the Advance Bank Guarantee. He would clarify that, for the purposes of the present proceedings, the Petitioner is limiting its challenge to the invocation of the said Bank Guarantee on the singular and well-recognised ground of the invocation being vitiated by egregious fraud, which, according to him, squarely attracts the limited exceptions carved out in law for judicial interference with unconditional bank guarantees.

18. It is well settled that courts ought not to interfere with the invocation of a bank guarantee except in cases of egregious fraud or where encashment would result in irretrievable injustice. In Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. v. State of Bihar & Ors.5, the Hon'ble Supreme Court underscored that bank guarantees form the backbone of commercial transactions and must ordinarily be honoured strictly in accordance with their terms. The relevant observations are as under:

24. The co-ordinate Bench clarified that disputes relating to the validity of termination or attribution of delay do not impinge upon the autonomous character of a bank guarantee and cannot, by themselves, justify judicial interdiction at the stage of invocation. It was further held that interference is warranted only where egregious fraud goes to the very root of the guarantee or where irretrievable injustice of an exceptional nature is demonstrated, issues concerning contractual performance and termination being matters reserved for adjudication before the arbitral forum. The relevant portions of the Black Gold 2025 SCC OnLine Del 9231 Resources Private Limited (supra) are reproduced hereinafter:

29. Position of law is no more res integra that an injunction against the invocation of an absolute and an unconditional Bank Guarantee cannot be granted except in situations of egregious fraud or irretrievable injury to one of the parties concerned. However, no such facts of egregious fraud or irretrievable injury, have been pleaded, or brought forth before this Court.‖