Sriharikota (AP), Jul 15: Senior officials of Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, and Devas Multimedia, would meet soon over the controversial S-band spectrum agreement between the two which has been scrapped by the government, the space agency's Chairman K Radhakrishnan said today.
“... the first process is discussion at the level of senior management. Devas has identified a senior management team and Antrix has also identified senior management team. They are expected to meet soon,” he told reporters here.
This was the first reaction from ISRO after Devas Multimedia recently moved the International Court of Arbitration for restoration of the contract, scrapped in February 2011, after the controversy broke out over the agreement allocating the scarce S-band spectrum.
Devas is understood to have urged the international court to direct Antrix to fulfil its agreement.
Radhakrishnan said if the senior management teams were not able to resolve the dispute, “we can extend it by time as given in the agreement. Then an arbitration process would be required...”
In case of arbitration, Indian law would apply, he said during the media briefing after the PSLV-C-17/GSAT-12 launch mission.
Explaining the procedure, he said Antrix and Devas had to identify one arbitrator each both of whom in turn would name the third.
“Indian law would apply... and the seat of arbitration is Delhi... so Indian law is applicable and if these senior management teams do not complete their job.. it's a legal process and one can't talk more about it... it is prudent not to talk about that,” the ISRO chief said.
Antrix had entered into an agreement with Devas for leasing of S-band capacity on two satellites—GSAT 6 and 6A to be launched by ISRO.
Under the terms of the agreement, Devas was to use the leased capacity for 12 years to offer multimedia services through its specialised systems to mobile terminals across India.
The Cabinet Committee on Security had scrapped the deal in February citing strategic reasons. PTI
