NEW DELHI/MUMBAI, Feb. 13 -- The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that telecom spectrum is a "material resource of the community" and cannot be treated as an ordinary asset under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to repay lenders in the insolvency cases of Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom).

A bench of Justice P.S. Narasimha and Justice Atul Chandurkar held that spectrum belongs to the people of India, with the government acting as trustee, and that the IBC cannot override the structure governing spectrum, including its control and benefits as a public resource.

The detailed written judgment is awaited.

The verdict came on a batch of petitions filed by State Bank of India and the two insolvent telecom operators challenging a 2021 ...