Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani on Wednesday was found guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court over non-payment of Rs 550 crore dues owed to Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani on Wednesday was found guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court over non-payment of Rs 550 crore dues owed to Swedish telecom giant Ericsson. A bench of justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saharan asked Ambani to pay Rs 453 crore to Ericsson within four weeks and warned he would face three months jail if its orders were not followed.
The bench pronounced the verdict after Ericsson dragged Ambani to court after RCom failed to clear its dues despite having given an undertaking to pay the amount.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing Ericsson India in the case, had earlier invoked the Rafale deal to target Ambani during the hearing.
“They have money for Rafale. Somebody who is getting involved in every conceivable project has no money to pay Rs 550 crore to us and honour this Court’s order”, the Counsel told the bench.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Anil Ambani, sought to counter this and said the undertaking was conditional upon the sale of RCom assets to Jio. “To say that Anil Ambani gave a personal undertaking and that it was unconditional is a traversing of justice … It was conditional”, Rohatgi said.
Rohatgi told the bench that the sale which was expected to net Rs 18,100 crore brought in only Rs 780 crore. Dave submitted that this money from the sale was given to the Department of Telecommunications instead of Ericsson. Rohatgi replied that lenders had done this to keep the telecom licence alive as without that, there would be nothing.
There was also controversy over the bench’s order that sought Ambani’s personal appearance during the contempt proceeding. The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi sacked of two Supreme Court employees for tampering with the apex court order.
The incident which led to the development dates to January 7 when the apex court bench directed Anil Ambani’s personal presence on the contempt plea by Swedish telecom group Ericsson.
However, the order uploaded on the court’s official website said “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is dispensed with”, indicating that Ambani would not have to appear in court on the next day of hearing.
This was subsequently “revised” and a new document was uploaded. It said “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with”. The digital signature on the order shows it was uploaded on January 9.