Top court reserves judgment on Ericsson's contempt petition against Anil Ambani, two directors

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgment on Ericsson's contempt petition against Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani and two directors for not paying Rs 550 crore to the Swedish company as per a direction of the court. Ambani, Reliance Telecom Ltd Chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel Ltd Chairperson Chhaya Virani, who have been issued contempt notices by the apex court on January 7, were present in the courtroom. On Tuesday, a bench of Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Sharan had said due to the paucity of time the hearing on the plea would continue on Wednesday.

During the hearing, senior advocate Dusyant Dave appearing for Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson said that Reliance has committed contempt a number of times and they have not purged themselves. He said RCom violated two orders of the top court and even committed perjury by concealing information under oath.

Senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi and Kapil Sibal, appearing for Reliance said that no contempt was made out as our attempt to save the company did not go well.

Rohatgi said the deal worth Rs 25,000 crore to sell assets of the telecom company to Reliance Jio has fallen through and now they are in the insolvency.