Hearing an application filed by Reliance Communications (RCom), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has stayed two show cause notices issued by the licenser to the beleaguered telecom operator.

Earlier, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) served a notice to RCom for defaulting on a Rs 21-crore spectrum payment in Mumbai circle, seeking why its spectrum and licence should not be withdrawn. On its part, RCom moved NCLAT seeking a stay on the notices.

Another DoT letter, issued six days ago to Axis Bank to encash a bank guarantee of Rs 2,000 crore provided by RCom, was also stayed by a two-member bench of NCLAT headed by S. J. Mukhopadhaya.

According to the NCLAT ruling, the showcause notices and letter were against its February 4 order, when it had granted protection against any asset sale without its permission.

"The showcause notices of March 14 and 15 and letter dated March 20, 2019, by DoT is against the direction passed by this tribunal," the NCLAT said. The matter will now come up for hearing on April 8. RCom had missed the March 13 deadline for spectrum payment.

On March 18, RCom and Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), had decided to mutually terminate an asset-sale agreement.

This comes even as Mukesh Ambani stepped in to save his younger brother Anil from going to jail by coughing up the money to repay Swedish equipment major Ericsson. RCom paid Rs 458.77 crore to Ericsson, avoiding a potential three-month jail term for its Chairman, Anil Ambani.

The asset sale agreements, signed on December 28, 2017 and August 11, 2018, were supposed to reduce RCom’s debt but regulatory and legal hurdles delayed the completion of the deal.

The transactions were called off due to non-receipt of consent and no-objection certificates from RCom’s foreign and Indian lenders, who number over 40. This was despite over 45 meetings and the passage of over 15 months, RCom said in a regulatory filing.

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