Devas, government to resolve satellite deal cancellation

The arbitration award will set a platform for collaborative dialogue, says Devas CEO-President Ramachandran Viswanathan

Devas Multimedia, which has won two international tribunal awards against the cancellation of its contract with Antrix Corp to lease two satellites to India, said it would engage with the National Democratic Alliance government to resolve the issue.

“With the change in government, engagement is what we’re looking forward to. The arbitration award will set a platform for collaborative dialogue,” Ramachandran Viswanathan, president and chief executive officer of Devas, said in a telephonic interview.

On Monday, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague found that India had breached its bilateral treaty commitments with Mauritius to accord fair and equitable treatment to the foreign investors of Devas by cancelling the deal. The US investors of Devas, Columbia Capital and Telcom Ventures, had approached the tribunal seeking relief over India’s decision to cancel the contract citing national security issues.

In September 2015, the International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration body International Court of Arbitration had asked Antrix — the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) — to pay $672 million (Rs 4,400 crore) to Devas over the deal cancellation. Devas is also fighting a case based on the verdict in the Delhi High Court.

Devas had signed a contract with Antrix in 2005 to lease two satellites that would use the S band spectrum to beam high-speed internet on mobile devices. It got caught in the political storm that erupted over the 2G telecom scam. It also cost five senior Isro scientists, including its former chairman G Madhavan Nair, who had by then retired, opportunities to work on government engagements.

A panel led by aerospace scientist Roddam Narasimha, which looked into the deal, had absolved the scientists of any wrong doing.

“The previous government took the decision. The consequential damage by the tribunals and its impact arose due to the decisions dated 2011,” said Viswanathan.

The Department of Space (DoS), the government body that oversees Isro, said that the Hague verdict would limit the compensation liability to 40 per cent of the value of the investment, but did not quantify the amount.

“The Government of India reiterates that it had invoked the essential security interests through a well-reasoned, valid and proper Cabinet Committee on Security decision. The award of the tribunal is being examined and legal recourse, as deemed fit, will be taken. We also remain committed to pursuing our larger national interests including sovereign strategic security interests in this matter,” DoS stated on Tuesday.