Devas threatens legal action if deal with Antrix is annulled

Objecting to a government move to annul its contract with Antrix following the S-band spectrum controversy, Devas Multimedia today said it would take "strong" legal steps to protect its rights and interests.

Contending that it had a legally binding agreement with ISRO's commercial arm Antrix, Devas said it expected the government to fulfil all its obligations under the agreement and will take strong steps, including legal, to protect its rights.

"We have grave concerns regarding the government's statement today on pre-meditated annulment of the agreement, despite pending high-power committee and CAG reviews which are still in the preliminary stages," a statement issued by the Bangalore-based company said here.

It termed as "disturbing and inappropriate" the government's "unilateral" decision to terminate the agreement "without due investigative process and without following the principles of natural justice".

"In spite of the company's willingness to co-operate and assist in required government reviews without prejudice to our legal rights, we have not yet heard from the government in this regard," the statement said.

"The Devas-DOS/ISRO/Antrix Agreement is in line with the government's 1997 SatCom Policy. The company has complied with all its obligations under this agreement and is in compliance with all laws and rules in respect of conducting its business," it said.

"The company also notes the increasing public awareness of the vested political and business interests in conjunction with certain media organisations that have been instrumental in bringing about an intentional gross misrepresentation of the facts of Devas-DOS/ISRO/Antrix satellite transponder capacity lease and tying it inappropriately to unrelated telecom spectrum issues for their own purposes," the statement said.