A petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking to stop the sale of share ownership of private sector telecommunication service provider, Ncell, has been dismissed. On Thursday, the Supreme Court heard the writ petition filed by MP Amresh Kumar Singh and decided to dismiss the writ petition and issue a directive order.

Member of Parliament Singh filed a writ demanding to stop the sale of Ncell's then Malaysian company Aziata Group Berhad to non-resident Nepali Satishlal Acharya's company Spectre to the UK. On the case registered on November 22 last year, Justices Sapna Pradhan Malla and Tek Prasad Dhungana issued a directive order dismissing the writ in the joint bench of the Supreme Court on December 11.

MP Singh had claimed in his petition that Ncell had sold shares at a lower price than the actual value of the company with the aim of evading capital gains tax. Singh argued that selling 80 percent of shares for 6 billion rupees is unacceptable as Ncell has been earning about 40 billion rupees annually in Nepal. He filed a writ against Ncell, Nepal Telecommunication Authority, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers and Internal Revenue Office.

Spectralite UK, registered in the UK for one dollar in September last year, bought 80 percent of Ncell's shares two months after registration.  The transaction of buying and selling of shares was done abroad, not in government offices in Nepal. Ajita informed Ajita through a notification that he sold 100 percent of the shares of Renold Holdings, which holds the shares of Ncell, to Acharya's company for 50 million US dollars (6 billion 65 million rupees).