Swedish telecom manufacturer Ericsson has reportedly filed a second contempt of court petition in the Supreme Court (SC), pleading that Anil Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Communications, should be detained in jail and be barred from travelling outside of India. The petition has come after Reliance Communications failed to pay dues of Rs 550 crore despite a court order.
Senior advocate Anil Kher, who appeared on behalf of Ericsson, told Economic Times, “The fresh application was filed because Reliance Communications and others did not comply with the SC order. We have been waiting for payments for a long time, and their default is contempt of court,” adding that, “Under Contempt of Court Act, if found guilty, this could lead to civil imprisonment, which means jail up to six months.”.
Ericsson asked the court to direct Reliance Communications’ lenders to pay the amount due along with interest. The company also sought a stay on the “further sale of assets and a reversal of transactions already completed, in accordance with an appellate tribunal’s earlier order”.
The Swedish company also asked the court to “allow insolvency resolution proceedings under and in accordance with the order and proceedings of the NCLT against the respondents.” Earlier, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had admitted an insolvency petition against Anil Ambani’s firm. However, it managed to save itself by chalking out an asset monetisation plan to reduce its debt of Rs 46,000 crore by Rs 18,000 crore, the report added.
This is not the first instance when Reliance Communications has failed to pay Ericsson. In October, Ericsson filed a contempt petition against the company when it missed the September 20 deadline. The Supreme Court had then given time till Dec 15 to pay the Swedish firm.
Anil Ambani’s telco, currently debt-laden, plans to sell its assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm and Canadian firm Brookfield for Rs 18,000 crore. Reliance Communications blamed the telecom department for delaying payments to lenders and Ericsson by not granting a no-objection certificate for its spectrum sale to Jio.