Antrix moves SC against Devas' arbitration proceedings

New Delhi: The commercial arm of Isro, Antrix Corp. has approached the Supreme Court challenging the arbitration proceedings initiated against it in London by Devas Multimedia, whose controversial 1,000 crore deal for scarce S-band spectrum with it was annulled. Antrix has filed a petition objecting to the invocation of arbitration proceedings by Devas at the International Court of Arbitration in London. It sought that any arbitration proceedings between them should take place within the boundaries of India.[caption id=“attachment_58459” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The satellite war. Image courtesy Antrix Corp. “]  [/caption] Antrix is contending that as per their agreement and tender conditions, the place of arbitration was Bangalore and has requested the apex court to interpret the arbitration agreement of the deal. The petitioner has requested the apex court to decide the place and other formalities on the arbitration. 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. After a controversy broke out on the agreement, the Cabinet Committee on Security had scrapped the deal in February citing strategic reasons. PTI