SC Holds Anil Ambani Guilty of Contempt For Defaulting Payments to Ericsson
Image Coutesy: Live Law
The Supreme Court bench of Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran has held Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Communications, guilty of contempt of court for defaulting payments to Ericsson as per the undertaking given to the Court.
The three Reliance Companies - RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance InfraTel- are also held guilty of contempt, and a fine of Rs 1 crore each has been imposed on them. The Court, however, has given an opportunity to Reliance companies to purge contempt by paying Rs 453 crore to Ericsson within 4 weeks, failing which Anil Ambani will be sent to prison for three months.
The contempt petitions have been filed alleging that the Reliance companies violated the undertaking made before court to pay off debts due to Ericsson worth Rs 550 crore. The company had missed the two deadlines of September 30 and December 15, leading to the filing of two contempt petitions.
Also Read: Ericsson Seeks Anil Ambani’s Imprisonment
The Swedish gear-maker has alleged that Reliance group has "wilfully and consciously" defied the order dated August 3 of the top court and the undertaking given before it to pay up by September-end. The apex court on October 23 had given one last opportunity to RCom for clearing the settlement amount, by setting December 15 as the deadline. When this deadline was also missed, the SC issued the contempt notice to Ambani on January 6. The bench was not prepared to accept the offer of part-settlement made by RCom for Rs 118 crore.
Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave appearing for Ericsson, last week submitted that Reliance have money to pay Rafale, but not to clear off Ericsson's dues.
Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Ambani and officials, denied any contemptuous behaviour on the part of his clients. He said that the commitment was made by the company, and therefore individual liability cannot be fastened on the Chairman and officials. Also, the undertaking was not unconditional; it was conditional on the deal between RCom and Jio falling through. Since the deal could not be finalised due to objection by Department of Telecommunications, the condition in the undertaking was not fulfilled, said Rohatgi.
Ambani was present in the Court on February 11 and 12, along with Reliance Telecom Ltd. Chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel Ltd. Chairperson Chhaya Virani, in response to the contempt notice.
Also Read: Ericsson-RCom Case: SC Dismisses 2 Officials for Tampering With Order on Anil Ambani’s Appearance
Meanwhile, another controversy had occurred, when the order issued by the Court on January 7, requiring personal presence of Ambani and other officers was found to be tampered with.
Though the bench had specifically made it clear that personal appearance is not dispensed with, the copy of the order uploaded in the official website of the top court stated personal appearance is dispensed with.
This led to an internal enquiry, resulting in the summary dismissal of summarily dismissed two court masters, Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty.
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