Antrix Devas scam: Salve, CAM secure stay for Devas from Supreme Court in the jurisdiction dispute

In the dispute between Devas Multimedia and Antrix Corporation (Antrix Devas Dispute), the Supreme Court yesterday issued notice and stayed the proceedings in Bangalore courts..The matter was heard by a Bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao..The petitioner, Devas Multimedia, was represented by Senior Counsel Harish Salve briefed by a team from Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas comprising Partner Omar Ahmad and Principal Associate Ishan Gaur. .The petition filed before the Supreme Court challenges the judgment of the Delhi High Court that had held that the Courts in Delhi did not have exclusive jurisdiction to hear the case even though the seat of arbitration was designated as New Delhi in the arbitration agreement between the two parties..It has been contended by the petitioner that designating a seat of arbitration is akin to assigning exclusive jurisdiction and submitted that Delhi Courts alone had the exclusive jurisdiction to hear any dispute..The present dispute and the issue of the seat of arbitration and exclusive jurisdiction arose when Antrix Corporation moved the Bangalore City Civil Court aggrieved by the Arbitral award passed in favour of Devas by the Arbitral Tribunal. The said Tribunal was constituted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)..Devas had challenged the jurisdiction of the Bangalore Court to hear the case citing the seat of arbitration which as per the Arbitration agreement between the parties, was New Delhi..In 2017, a Single Judge of the Delhi High Court allowed the petition filed by Devas Multimedia and held that that Delhi held exclusive jurisdiction on account of a designated seat of arbitration, and hence the petition filed by Antrix before the Bangalore Court was not maintainable..The same was challenged by Antrix before a Division Bench of the High Court which overturned the judgment of the single judge and held that Delhi and Bangalore had concurrent jurisdiction. It had, therefore, directed the Bangalore City Civil Court to decide on the question of maintainability considering that the said Court was moved first..This has now been assailed in Supreme Court. The Supreme Court yesterday issued notice in the matter and stayed all the proceedings in this case before the Bangalore Courts. The order reads:.“Issue notice. .Until further orders, there shall be stay of proceedings in Arbitration Application No.483/2011 and Arbitration Suit No.174 of 2015, pending in the Courts of VIth Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge, Bangalore City and the Additional City Civil Judge, Bangalore City, respectively.”.Read the Petition:.Read the Order: