Antrix-Devas arbitration over spectrum deal to be held in London: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today held that arbitration proceedings of dispute between Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, and Devas Multimedia regarding scrapping of controversial 1,000 crore deal for scarce S-band spectrum can take place at International Court of Arbitration(ICA) in London.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir dismissed Antrix's plea which had contended that as per their agreement and tender conditions, the place of arbitration was Bangalore and sought seeking its direction for conducting arbitration proceeding in India.

After analysing the arbitration agreement, the bench said Devas is entitled to approach ICA.

"In view of the language of Article 20 of the Arbitration Agreement which provided that the arbitration proceedings would be held in accordance with the rules and procedures of the International Chamber of Commerce(ICC) or United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL0, Devas was entitled to invoke the Rules of Arbitration of the ICC for the conduct of the arbitration proceedings," the bench said.

Antrix had entered into an agreement with Devas on January 28, 2005 for the lease of Space Segment Capacity on ISRO/ Antrix S-Band Spacecraft. Devas was to use the leased capacity for 12 years to offer multimedia services through its specialised systems to mobile terminals across India.

The contract was terminated by the government on February 25, 2011 after a controversy broke out on the agreement and the Cabinet Committee on Security had scrapped the deal citing strategic reasons. Thereafter, Devas approached ICA for arbitration.