NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday rejected the plea of the Department of Telecom (DoT) challenging a refund of Rs 104.34 crore to Reliance Communications (RCom). In December 2018, the Telecommunications Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal had ordered the refund to the then telecom arm of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group as the balance of bank guarantee for spectrum.
The tribunal’s order was challenged by the government. Meanwhile, RCom had slipped into insolvency in 2019.
A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat said, “There is consequently logic and merit in the contention of RCL/RTL that the Centre unreasonably refused to refund the excess amounts. The Union’s argument that there were subsequent defaults or short payments in respect of liability towards later periods, or its objection that the impugned directions could not have been issued in execution proceedings, are insubstantial. We don’t find any merits in the appeal.”
The tribunal had directed the Centre to return the amount after encashing bank guarantees of Rs 908 crore on deferred charges of Rs 774 crore for the 2013 and 2015 spectrum auctions. The payment was to be made over a period of 18 years.
While RCom wanted the excess money to be returned after the department encashed the bank guarantees, the telecom department preferred to keep it as buffer for other liabilities of the operator. The DoT has already adjusted Rs 30.33 crore. Meanwhile, RCom’s Committee of Creditors is set to hold a meeting on Wednesday to deliberate on the firm’s corporate insolvency and resolution process. According to company sources, the lenders’ panel is set to take up several important issues, including bids from firms like Reliance Jio, Airtel, Varde and UVARCL.
The panel is also likely to seek an extension in the resolution process by a few more weeks until the end of February, from the earlier scheduled date of January 10. While the Anil Ambani-led firm’s secured debt is estimated at around Rs 33,000 crore, lenders had submitted total claims worth around Rs 49,000 crore when the firm began the insolvency process. The firm has put up all its mobile business assets for sale including spectrum holdings of about 122 MHz, its entire mobile towers business, and its optical fibre network.