Internal communications made public during international arbitration prove that the Government of India made up a force majeure declaration as a legal cover story for its unlawful termination of the Devas Agreement.
Having failed to convince Dr B. N. Suresh of the Indian Institute of Space and Technology (the “Suresh Report”) to falsify his findings, Dr K. Radhakrishnan sought a formal opinion of the Additional Solicitor General of India, Shri Mohan Parasaraan. Parasaraan advised that Antrix did not have grounds to terminate the contract for cause. Parasaraan then advised that the only route to terminate the agreement was for the Government of India to invoke the“doctrine of force majeure”based on the government’s own pretextual “policy” change regarding S-band spectrum.
On February 25, 2011, Devas was notified that India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), decided to terminate the agreement based on the “doctrine of force majeure.” The ICC(1) and an UNCITRAL tribunal(2) found there was no genuine force majeure event because Dr Rashakrishnan had concocted the alleged “needs” cited in the bogus Cabinet policy decision.
- ICC Award, Paragraphs 229-236
- UNCITRAL Interim Award to Deutsche Telekom, Paragraph 363.