DEVAS EMPLOYEES MAURITIUS Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Devas Employees' Mauritius Pvt. Ltd., a Company incorporated under the laws of Republic of Mauritius has presented this writ petition with prayers to (i) declare Section 272(1)(e) of Companies Act, 2013 ('the Act' for short) as ultra vires Constitution of India; (ii) to declare that the second proviso to Section 272(3) of the Act, must be read to be applicable to the petitions presented by persons falling under Section 272(1)(e) of the Act; and to issue a writ of certiorari quashing sanction order dated January 18, 2021 and consequently to quash all proceedings in C.P. No. 06/BB/2021 before NCLT1.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are, petitioner holds 3.48% shares in Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd., (respondent No. 3 herein), (hereinafter referred to as 'Devas'). On January 28, 2005, Antrix Corporation Ltd., (respondent No. 2 herein) and Devas entered into an agreement for lease of space segment capacity on ISRO/Antrix S-Band Space Craft. According to the petitioner, investments were brought into Devas from different shareholders including State owned Deutsche Telekom, an enterprise of the German Government.

(3.) On February 25, 2011, Antrix Corporation terminated the agreement. Devas initiated arbitration proceedings in ICC2. On September 14, 2015, ICC Arbitral Tribunal passed an Award for USD 562.5 Million with interest thereon, which according to the petitioner works out to about Rs. 10,000 Crores and same is being enforced in several jurisdictions. The Central Government vide notification dated January 18, 2021 has authorised the Chairman and Managing Director of Antrix Corporation to present a petition to wind up Devas. Accordingly, Antrix Corporation has filed a Company Petition before NCLT, Bengaluru. By it's order dated January 19, 2021, NCLT has admitted the petition and granted time to the respondents therein to file replies; and appointed the official liquidator attached to this Court as provisional liquidator.