New Delhi, April 30 -- Nearly six years since Sweden's Ericsson won Rs.550 crore dues from Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) following a Supreme Court order, the bankrupt telco's demand to return the money is coming up in court. On Thursday, the Mumbai bench of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) will hear RCom resolution professional's petition that the Swedish company is an operational creditor, and paying it first while financial creditors wait would be a case of preferential treatment.

Once among India's leading telecom operators, RCom could not survive a brutal tariff war that began in 2016, and filed for bankruptcy in 2019. Ericsson won its dues after a court battle the same year, but the story did not end there-the RP had sought...