Anil Ambani held Guilty Of Contempt; Reliance to Pay Ericsson Rs 453 Crores In 4 Weeks to avoid prison

Anil Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Communications, has been held guilty of contempt of court by a SC bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and Vineet Saran.

– The trio of RCom, Reliance Telecom and Reliance InfraTel have also been held guilty of contempt and a fine of Rs 1 crore has been slapped on each of them.

However, the companies can purge contempt by paying Rs.453 crores to Ericsson within 4 weeks, failing which, Anil Ambani will be imprisoned for three months.

The Reliance companies have allegedly violated the undertaking made before the court to pay off debts worth Rs 550 crores to Ericsson. Both deadlines of September 30 and December 15 were missed, resulting in the filing of two contempt petitions.

RCom made an offer of part settlement of Rs 118 crore which was not acceptable to the bench.

Ericsson, represented by Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, last week submitted that Reliance had money to pay for Rafale but not to clear off Ericsson's dues.

Appearing for Ambani and officials, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, denied contemptuous behaviour on the part of his clients and said that individual liability could not be put on the chairman and offficials as the commitment had been made by the company.