Anil Ambani, RCom Guilty Of Contempt Of Court, Rules SC

RCom must pay 453 cr. to Ericsson in 4 weeks, else Ambani faces jail time.

- Krishnadas Rajagopal

The Supreme Court on Wednesday found Reliance Communications Ltd. (RCom) and its chairman Anil Ambani and two other group firms guilty of contempt of court, observing that the defendants had adopted a “cavalier attitude” despite the court’s best efforts to “lend a helping hand” to pay off dues worth550 crore to Swedish telecommunications equipment major Ericsson.

A Bench of Justices Rohinton Nariman and Vineet Saran ordered RCom to “purge” the contempt by paying a balance of453 crore of dues to Ericsson within four weeks. If not, Mr. Ambani, along with Reliance Telecom Ltd. (RTL) chairperson Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel Ltd. (RITL) chairperson Chhaya Virani, would each have to serve a sentence of three months’ imprisonment.

The court said the three chairpersons had given “conditional” undertakings on behalf of their respective companies in order to “wriggle” out of the commitment to the court.

“The undertakings given on the footing that the amount of550 crore would be paid only out of the sale of assets was false to the knowledge of the three Reliance companies,” Justice Nariman wrote. “This itself affects the administration of justice, and is, therefore, contempt of court,” the Bench held.