India has said that it will appeal against the Permanent Case of Arbitration at The Hague verdict declaring the annulment of the Antrix-Devas deal as ‘unfair’ and ‘inequitable’.
“We will appeal against the verdict at Hague (tribunal),” AS Kirankumar, Secretary, Department of Space, said.
Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of the ISRO, yesterday lost a case for the second time in an international tribunal over cancelling a deal with Devas Multimedia, a satellite firm backed by Deutsche Telekom and two US investors.
India had cancelled the deal with Devas to lease two satellites to beam high-speed internet to smartphones on the S-band in 2011, stating it would use spectrum in the band for strategic purposes.
Hitting back, the government had defended the decision of annulling the deal saying it was taken considering the “essential security interests” through well-reasoned, valid and proper consultations in the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Department of Space (DoS) had said the limited liability of compensation would be only up to 40 per cent of the value of the investment and the exact quantum has not yet been determined.
“The government of India reiterates that it had invoked the essential security interests through a well reasoned, valid and proper CCS decision,” the DoS said.
Under the deal signed in 2005, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band wavelength to Devas for its digital multimedia services by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in ISROs GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A satellites.
Devas, in turn, was to pay Antrix a total of $300 million (Rs 2010 crore) over 12 years.
With PTI Inputs
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