Bombay HC dismisses RCom’s appeal against arbitration order barring asset sale
NEW DELHI: In yet another setback to Reliance Communications, the Bombay High Court Thursday has dismissed the company’s plea challenging the arbitration court’s order which “restrained” the sale or transfer of the telco’s assets without prior permission.
In a statement Thursday, an RCOMBSE -0.20 % spokesperson said the company would challenge the order of the Bombay High Court.
“We intend to file an appeal against the interim order of the Hon’ble Mumbai High Court. The claims of secured financial lenders stand higher in priority as compared to Ericsson, which is an unsecured operational vendor. Further, the sale of assets is being undertaken in pursuance of the decisions of the secured financial lenders,” the spokesperson said.
After hearing arguments for three hours, the Bombay High Court, in an interim order, decided to uphold the interim order issued by the arbitration court, in an arbitration battle being fought between gear maker Ericsson and RCom where the Swedish equipment maker trying to recover its dues worth Rs 1,012 crore.
According to lawyers present in the court room, the court dismissed all three appeals filed by Reliance Communications and its two companies.
The companies had filed the appeal two days ago, against the arbitration court ruling that stalls till the next hearing in June RCom’s planned sale of most of its wireless assets including spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence nodes to Jio for around Rs25,000 crore, which was scheduled to be completed by March end.
RCom is racing against time to pay its 35 lenders, failing which they could take the company to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016, especially after the central bank scrapped all debt recasts.
