Devas threatens legal action if ISRO annuls accord

BANGALORE - Private firm Devas Multimedia Wednesday said it “will take strong, including legal, steps” if its accord with the Indian space agency on allocation of S-band spectrum was annulled.

The Bangalore-based company reiterated that it “has a legally binding agreement with the Department of Space/Indian Space Research Organisation/Antrix (ISROs commercial arm).

Devas has not elected to terminate the agreement despite DOS/ISRO/Antrix being in material breach. Devas expects the government to fulfil all its obligations under the agreement and will take strong, including legal, steps to protect the companys rights and interests, the firm said in a statement.

The agreement between Antrix and Devas, signed Jan 28, 2005, is likely to be annulled following a public uproar that it would result in huge revenue loss to the government.

The deal is said to have caused billions of rupees’ loss though both the government and the ISRO have denied it, pointing out neither transponders have been allotted to Devas nor any radio waves sanctioned for the firm yet.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will take the final decision on the Indian Space Commission’s recommendation for cancelling the Antrix-Devas agreement.

We have grave concerns regarding the governments statement today on pre-meditated annulment of the agreement, despite pending High Power Committee and CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) reviews which are still in the preliminary stages, the company’s statement said.

It said though Devas has offered to cooperate in the probe into the deal, we have not yet heard from the government in this regard.