Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered status quo on Reliance Communications Ltd's plan to sell its wireless assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), frustrating the Anil Ambani company's bid to wriggle out of a debt mess.

R-Com and its lenders, led by the State Bank of India (SBI), had filed special leave petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court against the stay granted by two lower courts on the sale of certain assets by the company.

The Bombay high court had dismissed an appeal filed by R-Com challenging an interim order passed by an arbitration tribunal. The tribunal, following an appeal by telecom gear maker Ericsson, had restrained R-Com from the sale or transfer of its assets without prior approval.

Later, on March 12, the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal had stayed the sale of its tower and optic fibre assets to RJio based on the petition filed by the minority investors of its subsidiary - Reliance Infratel Ltd.

The apex court bench, comprising Justices A. K. Goel, R. F. Nariman and U. U. Lalit, which heard the matter on Thursday, refused to lift the stay ordered by the Bombay high court on the asset sale. The top court will hear the pleas from the consortium of banks and R-Com against the stay on April 5.

The SLPs were heard on Thursday and notices have been issued to the respondents, Ericsson and minority investors holding around four per cent stake in Reliance Infratel, allowing them time to file their replies by March 28.

In view of the court holidays on March 29 and March 30, the matter has been fixed for hearing on April 5.

Last year, R-Com had entered into definitive binding agreements with Mukesh Ambani's Jio for the sale of wireless spectrum, tower, fibre and media convergence node assets for an estimated Rs 25,000 crore as it looked to bring down its debt pile of over Rs 42,000 crore.

Apart from the monetisation of secured assets, two properties of R-Com in Delhi and Chennai were proposed to be sold to third parties for Rs 800 crore.

Ericsson had moved the arbitral tribunal and sought to restrain the sale of R-Com Consolidated's assets on the ground that it had a claim of Rs 1,150 crore on the telecom firm.

R-Com Consolidated incorporates the Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications, Reliance Infratel and Reliance Telecom.

R-Com, however, has struck an optimistic note. "As legally advised, R-Com remains confident that its asset monetisation programme will be completed expeditiously to protect the interests of its secured lenders, much in advance of the time limit of August 31 prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India for the resolution of such cases," the company said in a statement after Thursday's proceedings in the apex court.

The stock market reacted negatively to the news and the R-Com stock ended with losses of 5.36 per cent, or Rs 1.35, at Rs 23.85 on the BSE.