Govt may bring new law to restrict use of S-Band spectrum

Against the backdrop of the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, the Department of Space is mulling bringing a new law to keep the scarce S-Band spectrum out of commercial use and reserve it for strategic and societal purpose only.

The Department of Space has proposed that a new legislation is now desirable for use of S-Band which is a scarce natural resource and it should not be available for commercial utilisation.

The proposal suggests the S-Band should be reserved for “strategic and societal” use only.

It is learnt to have highlighted the fact that S-band spectrum is crucial for strategic and societal services.

The Integrated Space Cell of the Integrated Defence Staff has projected its need for S-band for meeting the immediate requirements of the armed forces.

Central police forces including BSF, CISF, CRPF, and Coast Guard have also demanded a share in the S-band for meeting their secured communication needs.

The Railways too has projected S-band requirement for a train tracking system.

The proposal, which is in a draft stage, says with the emerging requirements, there is an imminent need to preserve the S-band spectrum for vital strategic and societal applications.

Controversial Antrix-Devas deal

The controversial S-Band spectrum deal between ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix and private firm Devas Multimedia was scrapped in February, 2011.

The decision to annul the deal was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on the basis of a recommendation from the Space Commission.

The annulment came in the wake of a raging controversy over the deal for handing over 70 Mhz of S-Band spectrum to the private firm for Rs 1,000 crore.

According to certain estimates, this deal may have resulted in a loss of Rs 2 lakh crore to the exchequer.

A fallout of the cancellation of the deal has been arbitration cases against the government by various companies.

Now, Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran in a legal opinion on arbitration proceedings, has said the government can raise ’preliminary objections’ in the International Court of Arbitration in Paris against the notice sent to it by German telecom major Deutsche Telekom.

Parasaran has also opined that the government was free to question the jurisdiction of arbitration tribunals in taking up cases which are contrary to bilateral treaties India has with various countries.

Deutsche Telekom had sent a notice to the government in September, saying its Singapore-based subsidiary had a 20 per cent stake in Devas which makes it eligible to seek compensation through arbitration.

Earlier, the Law Ministry and the Finance Ministry were of the view that the company cannot go for international arbitration as it is a Singapore subsidiary of the German telecom company and New Delhi does not have a bilateral investment protection with Singapore.

COMMENT NOW