The Ninth Circuit Court in California, which is by far the largest of the 13 US Courts of Appeals, has allowed the appeal of Isro’s commercial arm in full and reversed the confirmation of the ICC award of $1.3 billion against Antrix that had previously been given by the district court at Seattle in a decade-old case of the failed satellite project. This is a significant victory for Antrix in its protracted legal battle against Bengaluru-based Devas Multimedia and its foreign investors on American.
The Ninth Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday that the district court “erred in exercising personal jurisdiction over Antrix” when it had asserted immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976. The court expressly reversed the judgement rendered against Antrix by the Western District Court of Washington at Seattle on November 4, 2020, but did not explain why. Devas registered this order at the district court of the eastern district of Virginia after receiving permission from the Seattle district court and attaching $87,457 in debts owing to Antrix by the US satellite company Intelsat. The outcome of the latest decision has rendered this Ninth Circuit order null and void, invalidating both this Devas attachment and any US court decisions against Antrix.
Chinmoy Roy, senior legal officer of Antrix, welcomed the US court’s ruling and informed TOI that the Delhi High Court had previously determined Devas to be fraudulent and revoked the ICC Arbitration Award against Antrix. Recent ruling in Antrix’s favour came from a court in the Netherlands. The recent verdict has resulted in the prosecution of Devas’ culprits.
The district court’s judgement is reversed because, according to the Ninth Circuit Court, “it erred in asserting personal jurisdiction over Antrix, and we need not address any of the other issues raised in the confirmation appeal.” The district court’s order allowing intervenors to register the judgement in the Eastern District of Virginia is therefore reversed since there is no judgement to be registered, and we are therefore not required to examine any of the issues raised by the Registration Appeals.
On the basis of the $1.3 billion in damages Devas received from the international arbitration tribunals for the cancelled satellite deal with Antrix in 2005, the company has been pursuing legal actions in the US, Canada, France, and a number of other nations to seize Antrix and the Indian government’s assets abroad. Devas shareholders also obtained a French court order to freeze an upscale flat in Paris that housed India’s deputy chief of mission and was valued at 3.8 million euros. Devas shareholders were previously permitted to seize 50% of Air India funds, estimated to be worth around $23 million and lying with international airlines body IATA.
Parallel to this, Antrix asked the NCLT to wind up Devas, claiming that the company “was formed for a fraudulent and unlawful purpose and its affairs had been conducted in a fraudulent manner.” Even the Delhi High Court struck aside an ICC award from 2015 in its October 2022 order after finding that it “suffers from patent illegalities and fraud.” The NCLT and subsequent NLCAT judgements for the liquidation of the Benglauru-based corporation were upheld by the Supreme Court as well.
