SC AGR Hearing LIVE: R-Jio tells why it should not pay RCom’s dues; Court seeks recovery from insolvent telcos

SC AGR Hearing LIVE: The Supreme Court continues hearing the case on recovery of AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues from insolvent telecom companies such as Reliance Communications and Aircel. A bench led by Justices Arun Mishra, S Abdul Nazeer and MR Shah will hear the case today. As the question “who pays the AGR dues of RCom,” continues, Reliance Jio earlier this week stated that it is not liable to pay Reliance Communications’ dues as it is only sharing spectrum for which payment of past dues is not required under the spectrum sharing guidelines. In an August 14 hearing, SC questioned that when Reliance Jio has been using RCom’s spectrum since January 2016 and earning revenue from it, then why shouldn’t it pay? In yesterday’s hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that spectrum is owned by the government but held by the company under insolvency, in trust, cannot be sold. “The people of the country are owners of the spectrum like all other natural resources and cannot be sold under insolvency and bankruptcy code (IBC). Spectrum is not defined as an asset under the IBC,” Mehta told SC.