Antrix scrapped the Devas satellite lease in 2011 — the awards now top $2 billion

In 2005 Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, agreed to lease S-band capacity on two INSAT satellites to Devas Multimedia, a startup promising satellite multimedia services. In 2011 Antrix terminated the agreement on strategic and policy grounds as the deal turned politically toxic after India's spectrum scandals. What India treated as an administrative cancellation, Devas treated as breach of a 20-year commercial contract.

The arbitrators sided with Devas. An ICC tribunal awarded it $562.5 million plus interest in 2015 for wrongful termination; in 2020 a second tribunal under the India-Mauritius investment treaty added $1.29 billion. Shareholders then chased Indian-linked assets abroad, winning Canadian orders against funds IATA held for Air India and the Airports Authority of India; in January 2023 a Canadian court let the seizure of half of Air India's IATA-held funds continue.

India fought back at home: the NCLT ordered Devas wound up on Antrix's petition, the Supreme Court let that stand in January 2022, and the finance minister called the deal a fraud on the people of India. The Delhi High Court annulled the ICC award in 2022 and the Supreme Court upheld that annulment in 2023. But in August 2026 the US Ninth Circuit affirmed the American confirmation of the $562.5 million award — by then past $2 billion with interest, by Devas's count.

ICC award $562.5M (2015) plus PCA award $1.29B (2020); interest tops $2 billion. Air India and AAI funds frozen in Canada; Devas wound up for fraud.

Antrix terminated for 'strategic reasons' rather than documented breach, handing the tribunal a straightforward wrongful-termination finding.

The fraud case against Devas was assembled after the termination, so it could not undo the awards already issued on the contract's face.

Devas's shareholders held Mauritius seats and US court access, letting them enforce against Indian-linked assets abroad even as Indian courts undid the awards at home.

The state entity assumed sovereign status would shield it overseas; US courts applied commercial-jurisdiction rules and moved ahead anyway.

Terminating a contract for political convenience, without proven breach, converts a policy dispute into damages. India spent a decade re-proving fraud while the award compounded abroad.

As of August 2026 the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the US confirmation of the ICC award, and Devas's counsel values the claim, with interest, above $2 billion; the case returns to US district court with India's annulment still open. Canada's seizure of half of Air India's IATA-held funds remains alive under the January 2023 order. At home the Supreme Court has upheld both the winding up of Devas (2022) and the ICC award's annulment (2023), and in March 2026 a Delhi special court returned the 2016 CBI charge sheet for want of jurisdiction. The two legal universes have not reconciled.