Permanent Court of Aribtration says India should pay up for cancelled Antrix-Devas deal

A Permanent Court of Aribtration tribunal has agreed that financial compensation should be paid after the Indian government unilaterally cancelled the Antrix-Devas deal in 2011.

Calling the verdict as unfortunate, former ISRO chief Madhavan Nair, who was at the helm of affairs in the Department of Space when the deal was signed, told ANI, "it is all because of the illegal action taken by the UPA 2 Govt. and the Department of Space at the time."

Nair also added that procedures were not followed while canceling the contract.

After this verdict, the Indian Government may have to pay billions of dollars to the Bengaluru based Devas Multimedia, which has a roster of US investors.

The 12-year long deal was signed in 2005 between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Cooperation and Devas multimedia, where Antrix agreed to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment to Devas for its digital multimedia services.

But after reports about possible revenue loss, the then Manmohan Singh-led government annuled the deal in 2011, post which Devas took Antrix and the Indian Government to International Court.

In 2015, Antrix was slapped a fine of about Rs 4,400 crore ($672 million) by International Arbitration Court for unilaterally terminating the contract with Devas.