The Supreme Court of India on Friday ruled that telecom service providers cannot use the moratorium under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) to restructure or defer payment of licence fees and spectrum dues payable to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) by treating spectrum as a corporate asset. The ruling came in Union of India vs State Bank of India.
Spectrum is a community resource, says Bench
A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Atul Chandurkar held that spectrum is a material resource of the community and must be managed in a manner that subserves the common good. “We hold that Spectrum allocated to TSPs and shown in their books of account as an asset cannot be subjected to proceedings under the Insolvency and…