In Brief
The Supreme Court held that telecom spectrum cannot be treated as an asset under India's insolvency law. Although telecom companies record spectrum-usage rights as intangible assets in their financial accounts, spectrum remains a sovereign natural resource held by the state in public trust. Licensees acquire only a limited, conditional privilege to use spectrum, not ownership. The Court ruled that insolvency proceedings cannot override telecom laws governing spectrum allocation and dues. Default payments to the government cannot be erased through insolvency protection. Spectrum management remains exclusively within the domain of telecom regulatory law, not the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
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