RCom defied a court order to pay Ericsson $77M — its chairman got four weeks or jail

Reliance Communications' row with Ericsson began as ordinary overdue payments for network equipment and curdled into a contempt case: after RCom agreed in May 2018 to settle, it missed the payment deadlines, and on February 20, 2019 India's Supreme Court ruled that the Reliance Group phone unit had disobeyed its order to pay about $77 million owed to Ericsson's local subsidiary — warning chairman Anil Ambani he would personally face three months in jail unless payment came within four weeks.

The contempt landed on a company already unwinding. RCom had agreed in December 2017 to sell its airwaves, towers, fiber and other assets to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio to fend off creditors, but regulatory and legal hurdles stalled the deal; asset sales elsewhere failed to raise cash, and the carrier entered bankruptcy proceedings that same February after struggling with billions in debt. Anil Ambani — sixth-wealthiest person in the world per Forbes in 2008 — had watched his telecom arm lose its No. 2 rank as Jio's 2016 free-call, cheap-data entry drained rivals of subscribers.

To comply, RCom asked lenders to release about ₹2.6 billion ($37 million) of income-tax refunds held in its accounts for direct payment to Ericsson; ₹1.2 billion was already deposited with the Supreme Court, and the company said it was confident of raising the remaining ₹2 billion in time. The group said it would meet the deadline.

The settlement deadlines were missed repeatedly after the May 2018 agreement, so the dispute returned to court as contempt rather than a civil recovery.

The Jio asset-sale lifeline was agreed in December 2017 but never closed in time, leaving RCom without cash for even a $77 million bill.

India's courts had begun cracking down on overdue borrowers among the rich, making a personal threat against one of its most prominent businessmen the marker of that shift.

Agreeing to a court deadline you cannot fund converts a commercial debt into personal jeopardy — creditors and courts stop believing the next promise.

As of the February 23, 2019 report, RCom awaited lenders' approval to route its tax refund to Ericsson, its bankruptcy proceeding was under way, and sister firm Reliance Capital was inviting Nippon Life to take full control of their asset-management joint venture to raise funds.