Spectrum can’t be transferred, sold by telcos: Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court ruled that telecom spectrum cannot be transferred or sold by companies under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) as it’s a scarce public resource, marking a win for the government and defeat for lenders to phone company Aircel Ltd, which stopped operations in February 2018. It filed for bankruptcy the same month.

The bankruptcy code cannot be the guiding principle for restructuring ownership and control of spectrum, which is a material resource, and its control with all its attributes, including benefits, have to be secured for citizens, a bench of justices PS Narasimha and Atul S Chandurkar said on Friday.