Reliance Communications (RCom) has staved off a jail term of three months for its chairman Anil Ambani by paying Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson dues of Rs 462 crore, ending the year-long legal battle between the two companies.Ericsson's lawyer confirmed receipt of the payment.As per Supreme Courts orders, March 19 was the last day to make the payment, which included penalty interests.
The apex court, in February, had held Ambani in contempt for not paying Ericssons dues despite having the money to do so.
The court threatened to send the businessman, and the chairmen of RCom units Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom Chhaya Virani and Satish Seth to jail if the money wasnt paid in four weeks.The battle between Ericsson and RCom started when the Swedish company moved a bankruptcy court in 2017 alleging that it had not been paid dues of around Rs 1,500 crore after signing a seven-year deal in 2013 to operate and manage the telcos nationwide network.The case moved from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and then to the Supreme Court, which gave RCom two deadlinesSeptember 30 and December 15, 2018 to repay dues, both of which were missed by RCom.
This prompted Ericsson to file three contempt petitions against Anil Ambani, chairman of RCom, and its two units were party to the case.RCom under a debt of RS 46,000 crore, was close to selling its assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) and Canadian asset management company Brookfield and use part of the proceeds of Rs 18,000 crore to repay its lenders and creditors including Ericsson.
But the deal fell through due to legal challenges.