US Appeals Court Upholds $562.5 Million Award Against Antrix, ISRO's Commercial Arm

A US appeals court has upheld the jurisdiction of American courts in the long-running Devas Multimedia-Antrix Corporation dispute and affirmed the confirmation of a $562.5 million arbitral award against Antrix, the commercial arm of India’s space programme.

However, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit did not decide whether the award can ultimately be enforced in the US after Indian courts subsequently set it aside. That issue has now been sent back to a federal district court for consideration.

US court upholds jurisdiction over Antrix

A three-judge Ninth Circuit panel ruled that the arbitration exception under the US Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) gives American courts jurisdiction over Antrix, despite the company being wholly owned by the Indian government.

The court rejected Antrix’s argument that the arbitration exception could apply only if the dispute had a commercial connection with the US. According to the ruling, an arbitral award covered by the New York Convention does not require such a US commercial link.

The appeals court also found that exercising personal jurisdiction over Antrix was consistent with the Fifth Amendment. It rejected Antrix’s request to have the proceedings moved to India under the doctrine of forum non conveniens.

The decision follows a June 2025 US Supreme Court ruling that revived Devas’ enforcement case. The Supreme Court had held that the FSIA does not require a separate “minimum contacts” test for US courts to exercise personal jurisdiction over a foreign state or its instrumentality when a sovereign-immunity exception applies and service requirements have been fulfilled.

Devas-Antrix dispute dates back to 2005

The dispute originated in a January 2005 agreement between Antrix and Devas Multimedia. Under the contract, Antrix was supposed to build, launch and operate two satellites and lease 70 MHz of S-band spectrum capacity to Devas.

Antrix terminated the agreement in February 2011 after the Indian government decided against allocating an S-band orbital slot for commercial activities. Devas challenged the termination and initiated arbitration before the International Chamber of Commerce.

In September 2015, an ICC tribunal ruled that Antrix had wrongfully repudiated the agreement and awarded Devas $562.5 million.

Devas later approached a US district court in Washington in 2018 to have the award recognised under the New York Convention. The district court confirmed the award, with the judgment eventually rising to around $1.3 billion with interest. Devas’ counsel has said the amount has since crossed $2 billion.

Antrix challenged the US proceedings on jurisdictional grounds. Although the Ninth Circuit initially sided with Antrix in 2023, the US Supreme Court overturned that decision in 2025.

The latest ruling now leaves one major question unresolved: what effect should the annulment of the award by Indian courts have on enforcement in the US?

The Delhi High Court set aside the award in 2022, a decision upheld by its division bench in 2023. The Supreme Court of India subsequently declined to interfere.

The Ninth Circuit has directed the US district court to examine the consequences of those Indian proceedings. Antrix may also seek a rehearing before the Ninth Circuit and potentially approach the US Supreme Court.

The appeals court separately upheld registration of the judgment in favour of Devas Multimedia America Inc, while overturning parts of the district court's decision concerning three Mauritian shareholders, finding that they lacked standing to register the judgment.

The case will now return to the US district court, where the impact of the Indian annulment on enforcement of the arbitral award will be considered.