Devas Multimedia moves int'l court against Antrix Corp

New Delhi, Jul 11: Devas Multimedia moved to the International Court of Arbitration (ICA) on Jul 11 seeking refurbishment of its contract with Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) commercial arm, Antrix.

The contract between Davis Multimedia, based in Bangalore and Antrix Corporation was terminated in feb by the UPA government after the wrongful conduct in the allotment of S band Spectrum emerged.

"Devas confirms having exercised its rights and filed for arbitration with the International Court of Arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce to resolve Antrix's breach of contract and purported termination of the Devas-Antrix Agreement. We would not like to comment any further," said the statement issued by Devas Multimedia.

The dispute emerged at a time when the country was witnessing a 'season of scams' in full swing.

Though Devas did not seek any monetary damages, the company has asked the tribunal for an compensation for breaching agreement. Calling the termination with Antrix wrong and invalid, the company claimed that the contract with the country remained "fully extant and binding".

The deal between Antrix and Devas was related to the leasing of S-band on 6A and GSAT 6 satellites, that were to be launched by ISRO and DoS.

Under the contract, Devas Multimedia was to use the hired capacity to offer multimedia services through its systems to mobile terminals across the nation for 12 years.

Antrix was given $340 million by Devas, while the government received a cost of at least $170 million.

Foreign investors like Columbia Capital and Deutsche Telekom had invested in the project, in which Deutsche Telekom holds 20% in Devas.

After the controversy over allocation of S band spectrum emerged, Antrix wrote to Devas that all the assignments with the company has been terminated.

Unable to provide the orbital slot in S band because of policy decisions on security taken by the cabinet committee and the government's policy decision made it difficult for Antrix to abide by the agreement

OneIndia News