RCom's administrator asks India's Supreme Court to revisit ruling on spectrum insolvency

what happened

The resolution professional for Reliance Communications (RCom) has asked the Supreme Court of India to recall its February 13 judgment, which held that telecom spectrum cannot be subjected to insolvency proceedings. The report, published by TradingView, says the curative petition was filed on Friday. The February ruling came from a bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Atul S. Chandurkar.

After the judgment, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notified RCom on October 5 that spectrum assigned to RCom and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom Limited was terminated and returned to the government. Administrator Anish Nanavaty said the DoT had also invoked bank guarantees linked to RCom on August 14, arguing the ruling causes irreversible harm.

The petition also says the government's claim as an operational creditor, with admitted claims of about ₹31,276 crore, gives it a "de facto super-priority" at odds with the Swiss Ribbons precedent.

why it matters

For markets, the concern is that lenders could lose collateral tied to their loans, which may tighten credit to the telecom sector. The petition also touches on mining leases, oil and gas licences and infrastructure concessions, so the outcome could matter beyond telecom.

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