Beyond a Sectoral Dispute
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in State Bank of India v. Union of India [2026 Livelaw (SC) 152] will inevitably be described as a telecom ruling. It is more than that. At its heart lies a question that goes to the architecture of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC): when a corporate debtor enters the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), what is the juridical character of the rights it holds, and which of those rights constitute part of the insolvency estate?
The controversy arose from the insolvency of telecom service providers whose spectrum usage rights were reflected on their balance sheets as intangible assets. The submission advanced was that spectrum had been acquired for…