SC says spectrum of bankrupt telecom operators can't be sold to repay lenders

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecom spectrum is a “material resource of the community” and cannot be treated as an ordinary asset under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to repay lenders in the insolvency proceedings of Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom).A bench comprising Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Atul Chandurkar held that spectrum belongs to the people of India, with the government acting as trustee, and that the IBC cannot override the statutory framewo ...