Devas Multimedia seeks international arbitration on Antrix deal
11 Jul 2011
New Delhi: Controversial space-services related firm, Devas Multimedia, has approached the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) seeking restoration of its contract with Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix. The contract was terminated by the UPA government in February after allegations of wrongdoing emerged over the allocation of S-band spectrum.
The government had said that it could not grant S-band spectrum to anyone including Antrix, due to strategic reasons.
In its appeal Devas has asked the tribunal to direct that it be compensated for breach of agreement and that Antrix's termination of the contract be termed improper and invalid. It has asked the court to declare that the agreement with Antrix remains "fully extant and binding".
It has not sought any specific monetary damages.
It has also urged the tribunal, which operates under the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), to direct Antrix, the Department of Space and ISRO to deliver the satellite capacity to it by 15 October 2012 and to fulfil all its obligations under the agreement signed on 28 January 2005 to enable the firm to start operations of its services.
The arbitration demand was filed on 29 June at the ICC in Paris.