ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corp will contest the decision by an international tribunal asking it to pay $672 million to Devas Multimedia as compensation for cancelling a satellite leasing contract.
“The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) award against Antrix in the Devas case is shocking. Antrix, with the support of Department of Space, is preparing to file in court its application for remedy,” Antrix said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court will take up the application filed by Devas to implement the tribunal order on October 9.
The Paris-based ICC Tribunal had ruled that Antrix must pay Devas a compensation of $672 million (around ₹4,435 crore).
Devas had challenged a decision by Antrix to cancel a contract, signed in 2005, for building two satellites for Devas, citing alleged irregularities in the deal.
The Antrix decision was backed by the Department of Space and the Union Cabinet.
One of the concerns was that Devas was getting access to spectrum in the 2500 MHz band as part of the satellite deal at a price that was much lower than what the Government received during the 2010 auction.
It was not until July 2, 2010 — weeks after BusinessLine revealed the nature of the deal to build the two S-band satellites — that the Space Commission was briefed on the agreement.
During its July 2010 meeting, the Space Commission took note of the fact that the INSAT Coordination Committee (ICC) guidelines provide for leasing the INSAT capacity for non-government users on a ‘non-exclusive' basis, but in the Antrix-Devas contract, 90 per cent of the capacity was alleged to be leased to a single party for the full lifespan of the satellite.
While Devas was prepared to renegotiate the deal, Antrix went ahead and scrapped it.
However, the ICC Tribunal unanimously ruled in Devas favour and found that Antrix is liable for unlawfully terminating the Devas-Antrix Agreement.
“Devas is hopeful that Antrix will now live up to its legal obligations and pay the award so that this dispute that arose during the prior government can be brought to a swift close,” Devas said in a statement.
Devas has initiated the process to secure the award and filed a petition in the Delhi High court on Monday.