Chairman of Reliance Communications (RCom), Anil Ambani on Wednesday was declared guilty of contempt by the Supreme Court of India over non-payment of Rs 550 crore dues owed to Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
A bench of justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saharan directed him to pay Rs 453 crore to Ericsson within four weeks, stating that he would face three months jail if the orders were not followed.
The verdict was pronounced after Ericsson took Ambani to court following failure of RCom to pay its dues despite having undertook to clear the amount.
Earlier, senior advocate Dushyant Dave who was representing Ericsson India in the case, had 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 honor this Court’s order,” the Counsel told the bench.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Anil Ambani, in response, 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.
Furthermore, controversy had erupted over the bench’s order seeking Ambani’s personal appearance during the contempt proceeding. The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi sacked two Supreme Court employees for tampering with the apex court order.
The incident led to January 7 when the apex court bench directed Anil Ambani’s personal presence on the contempt plea by Swedish telecom group Ericsson, which contradicted the order uploaded on the court’s official website: “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is dispensed with”, stating that Ambani would not have to appear in court on the next day of hearing.
The document was later ‘revised’ and a new one uploaded, which 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.
