The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecom companies cannot use the moratorium under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, to delay or restructure payments of licence fees and spectrum dues owed to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Bar and Bench reported.
The top court said that spectrum cannot be treated as a corporate asset during insolvency proceedings.
A Bench of Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe said that material resources must be managed in a way that serves the public good. It stressed that ownership and control of spectrum — along with any economic benefit from it — cannot be decided purely from a corporate restructuring perspective.
Case linked to Aircel insolvency
The…