NCLT admits Antrix Corp's plea to wind up Devas Multimedia, appoints Provisional Liquidator to take control of management

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Bengaluru ordered the appointment of a provisional liquidator for Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd following a winding-up petition preferred by Central government-owned Antrix Corporation..The provisional liquidator has been permitted to take control of the management, properties and actionable claims of Devas Multimedia. .A two-member Bench of Rajeswara Rao Vittanala, Member Judicial and Ashutosh Chandra, Member Technical, also directed the existing management of Devas Multimedia to extend full cooperation to the provisional liquidator to carry out his duties under the Companies Act..Referring to the Antrix-Devas scam, Antrix Corporation argued that the objective of Devas Multimedia was to “harm public interest and monies” and that Rs. 296 crore was used for personal gain of few officials, which was in clear violation of law and policy..Antrix’s case was supported by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. It was stated that the continuance of Devas Multimedia’s name on the rolls of Registrar of Companies was not warranted at all..Devas Multimedia, on the other hand, stated that since the cause of action arose a long time back, there was no urgency in the present petition and it should be granted time to respond before any interim orders are passed..In view of the submissions, the NCLT opined that a prima facie case for grant of interim order was made out..“Since the R1 Company (Devas Multimedia) has suffered various adverse findings with cogent evidence at the hands of various statutory authorities..it would not be proper to permit R1 Company to continue its name on the rolls of Registrar of Companies, Bangalore," it said. .NCLT stated that it was just and proper to appoint provisional liquidator in the present case. .Antrix Corporation's petition was also admitted and Devas Multimedia was granted time to file its response. .Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General N Ventkatraman with Advocate Purinma Hatti appeared for Antrix.Sr. Advocates Rajiv Nayar, Sajjan Poovayya with Advocates Dharmendra Chatur, Nandeesh Patel appeared for Devas Multimedia.The Antrix-Devas scam pertains to the leasing of S-Band, a restricted wavelength of the INSAT satellites to deliver video, multimedia and information services to mobile receivers in vehicles and mobile phones to Devas Multimedia by Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO.An FIR was lodged against Former ISRO chairperson G Madhavan Nair and several other officials of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Space (DoS) on March 16, 2015.Later that year, the Central Bureau of Investigation submitted a chargesheet before the Court against Nair, Rao as well as several others for causing a loss of Rs 578 crore to the exchequer by abusing their official positions to favour a private company..[Read Order]