The Supreme Court today (20th February) held Reliance Group chairman, Anil Ambani along with two company directors guilty of contempt for deliberately not paying Rs 550 crore to Ericsson. The Sweden-based telecom equipment maker Ericsson had filed 3 contempt petitions in the SC for not clearing its dues.
A bench of Justices Vineet Saran and RF Nariman, however, has asked RCom and Ambani to remove the contempt by giving Rs 453 crore to the telecom company in 4 weeks in addition to a Rs 118 crore amount lying with the court. SC told Anil Ambani that if he fails to pay the amount then he will have to serve 3 months of jail term.
Furthermore, the apex court has imposed Rs. 1 crore as fine on the three RCom bodies. And they will have to deposit it within 4 weeks or the directors will be sent to jail for one month.
The court rebuffed Ambani and Rcom’s unconditional apologies saying they had shown an offhand attitude to the administration of justice.
Ericsson had asked for contempt action by means of remanding them to civil jail and had also urged SC to confiscate the personal assets of Reliance Chairman and recover its dues.
Ambani, who was ordered to be present during the 2-day long hearing on the case, was there in court when the verdict was delivered.
The court had set aside its judgement on 13th February when Ericsson India had claimed that the Reliance Group has money to invest in Rafale jet deal but are unable to clear its dues. The charge was strongly denied by the company.
Ambani told the SC that with the failure of its assets sale agreement with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, his firm entered bankruptcy proceedings and is not in control of the finances.
Reliance Communications also told that they had tried to move ‘heaven and earth’ to make sure Ericsson gets all the dues but were not able to do so owing to the failure of assets sale deal with Jio.
