Supreme Court holds Anil Ambani, others guilty of contempt of court for wilfully not paying dues to Ericsson

New Delhi, Feb 20 The Supreme Court of India Wednesday held RCom administrator Anil Ambani liable of hatred of court for wilfully abusing its request by not paying Rs 550-crore levy to Telecom equipment maker Ericsson

The apex court held that the RCom chiarman and Reliance Telecom chairman Satish Seth and Reliance Infratel chairperson Chhaya Virani breached the undertaking given to the apex court and the related requests

The apex court said the RCom chairman and others should cleanse the contempt by paying Rs 453 crore to Ericsson in four weeks

A seat comprising of Justices RF Nariman and Vineet Saran said if the contemnor failed to make the payments within the specified period, they will undergo a jail term of three months

The apex court also directed Reliance Communication, Reliance Telecommunication and Reliance Infratel to deposit Rs 1 crore each to the apex court's registry in about a month or the chairman of these companies should go an additional jail term of one month

It directed that Rs 118 crore already deposited by Reliance Group in the apex court's registry be disbursed to Ericsson inside seven days

"From undertakings given by Reliance Group's top brass, it shows up they have wilfully not paid the amount to Ericsson despite orders and undertakings given," it said

The apex court specified that any unconditional apology given by Reliance should be dismissed as they have breached the undertaking and order

The seat said the three Reliance companies did not adhere to the 120-day due date and the extra 60 days given by the apex court to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson

It said the undertakings given in the court was false to the knowledge of the court and affected the administration of justice

Ambani, Seth and Virani were available in the courtroom.