Supreme Court ordered Anil Ambani to pay dues to Ericsson

Guwahati: Industrialist Anil Ambani has been held guilty by the top court on Wednesday in a case filed by telecom equipment maker Ericsson. The court has ordered Ambani to clear dues within four weeks and slapped a fine of Rs. 1 crore on three Reliance Group companies- R Com, Reliance Telecom Ltd and Reliance Infratel Ltd.

The Swedish telecom equipment maker had claimed that Reliance Communications had not paid up as ordered by the court earlier.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the industrialist to pay the dues of Rs. 453 crore failing which he will be sentenced to three-month jail term. The top court has directed to release an amount of Rs. 118 crore which is already deposited with the registry.

The court has also observed that RCom had no intention to pay and that it had not paid Ericsson the due amount wilfully. The court has also rejected an apology by RCom.

Ericsson India had alleged that the Reliance Group has money to invest in the Rafale Jet deal but they were unable to clear its dues of Rs 550 crore leading to which a bench of Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Saran has reserved its judgement on February 13. However, the Ambani led company denied the charge.

Meanwhile, Ambani argued that he is not in control of the funds and also told the Supreme Court that has entered insolvency proceedings due to failure of RCom assets sale deal with Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio.

The Supreme Court on October last year had asked R Com to clear the dues by December 15 and also said that the delay in payment would attract an interest of 12 percent per annum.

Ericsson had filed three contempt cases and also sought proceedings against Chairperson of Reliance Infratel Ltd Chhaya Virani, Chairman of Reliance Telecom Ltd Satish Seth and State Bank of India Chairman.

A seven year deal has been signed by Ericsson India with RCom in 2014 to manage and operate its network. RCom shut down its mobile business in 2017 which was once the second biggest phone service in India.

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