The Supreme Court Tuesday asked Devas Multimedia, which had won an arbitral award of USD 672 million from an international tribunal in 2015 against ISRO's Antrix Corporation, to apprise it whether it was willing to waive interest component on the amount.
The top court was hearing an appeal of Devas Multimedia against the Delhi High Court verdict in 2018 holding that a Bengaluru court had the jurisdiction to hear the dispute as the issue was first raised there.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the fact that the "interest meter" of the arbitral award against government firm Antrix Corporation was running fast and asked the counsel for Devas to be "reasonable" and apprise it as to whether it can waive the interest component.
"The interest meter is running very fast. We do not want that a government company should be crushed," said the bench, also comprising justices L Nageswara Rao and Indu Malhotra.
The bench then also asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the ISRO firm, and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Devas, to apprise it on April 15 about their stand as to where, either in Delhi or in Bengaluru, they would like their dispute to be resolved.
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"There is an award against you (Antrix). Whether it is heard in Delhi or in Bangaluru, it is not a big deal because you are incurring huge interest per day on the arbitral award... Why don't you agree to Delhi," the bench asked Venugopal.
The top law officer referred to laws on arbitration and kept insisting that the Bengaluru court has the jurisdiction in the case.
Venugopal also said that the government firm has no money to pay Devas Multimedia and moreover, a criminal case was going on against some pubic servants and others as there were allegations that the contract between the two firms was finalised fraudulently.
The High Court, in its 2018 verdict, had said that Antrix had in 2011 moved a plea in the Bangaluru City Civil Court to restrain Devas from proceeding with the arbitration and stop the arbitral tribunal set up by Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce from going ahead with the matter.
While the matter was pending in the court in Bengaluru, ICC's arbitration body -- International Court of Arbitration -- in its September 2015 ruling had asked Antrix to pay damages amounting to USD 672 million (Rs 4,432 crore) to Devas for "unlawfully" terminating a deal in 2011 citing national security reasons.
Subsequently, in September 2015, Devas moved the Delhi High Court for implementation of the arbitral award by seeking attachment of bank accounts of Antrix.
In November that year, Antrix had challenged the award in the Bangaluru City Civil Court where Devas argued that the Delhi High Court had jurisdiction to hear the dispute.
Thereafter, on February 28, 2017, the Delhi High Court had held that Antrix's pleas in the court in Bengaluru were not maintainable.
Setting aside the February 28, 2017 decision of the single judge, the division bench had said the Delhi High Court "does not possess the exclusive jurisdiction to deal with or adjudicate any applications arising out of the arbitration agreement between Antrix and Devas and section 42 of the Act precludes and bars this court from hearing and deciding the application preferred by Devas, in the facts and circumstances of the case".
The High Court had said the Bangaluru City Civil Court should first decide Antrix's initial plea against the arbitration proceedings and whether it is "maintainable, vexatious or mala fide".
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