New Delhi: The Supreme Court’s dismissal on Monday of the appeal filed by Devas Multimedia against the decision of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), which had upheld the National Company Law Tribunal’s decision to wind up the company, has significant political and economic ramifications — and it is likely India will use it while fighting against an international arbitration award won by Devas, whose enforcement the company has been pushing for in some geographies.
Recently, a Canadian court ordered the attachments of assets owned in that country by Air India as part of this. The judgment, delivered by a bench comprising justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian dismissed Devas’s and its minority shareholder Devas Employees Mauritius Private Ltd’s appeal, upholding the order passed by NCLAT, which stated that Devas was incorporated with a fraudulent motive to collude and connive with some officials of Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The judgment is the latest chapter in a controversial deal during the previous UPA regime, when, in 2005, Devas entered into an agreement with Antrix, the private sector arm of ISRO to provide high-speed data services using S-band satellite spectrum from Antrix.
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