Antrix Devas satellite deal: Delhi High Court stays order to transfer CBI corruption case to Bengaluru

On April 9, the high court stayed the special court’s order and further stated that passports of the accused must also not be returned as directed by it.

“Direction, whereby IO (investigating officer) has been permitted to present case file before the concerned competent Court, shall remain in abeyance till next date of hearing,” the Delhi High Court bench of Justice Manoj Jain ruled, posting the case to May 21 for a hearing.

Among the accused in the CBI corruption case over the now-cancelled 2005 Antrix-Devas satellite deal are former ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair, former senior ISRO officials, and US-based promoters of Bengaluru startup firm Devas Multimedia.

The Delhi High Court, in its stay order, noted that the CBI has taken exception to the March 11 order that “all the documents be returned to the investigating officer of CBI with liberty to present the same before the competent Court having jurisdiction to adjudicate the same”.

The special CBI court ruling came after one of the accused, a former IAS officer and additional secretary at ISRO, Veena Rao, filed an application stating that the substantive allegations relate to incidents in Bengaluru.

“Having considered all the facts and case laws on the point, in my considered view, this court does not have territorial jurisdiction to try the present case/offences therein, since the substantial portion of the acts leading to the present offences, have not taken place within the territorial jurisdiction of Delhi,” a special CBI court judge in Delhi ruled on March 11.

The CBI opposed the plea for the transfer of the case with the argument that the Department of Space and cabinet decisions for the 2005 Antrix-Deval satellite deal were taken in Delhi. The CBI also argued that decision-making was linked to the then Prime Minister’s Office.

“It is further stated that the entire conspiracy in the present case revolves around securing rights over the S Band spectrum from Govt. of India, Department of Space, walloping the first rights of defence establishments and this could have been done only by the approval of and budget allocation approval of Cabinet and thereafter, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, who happened to be in charge of Department of Space, during the relevant time,” the special court noted in March while referring to CBI arguments against the transfer of the case.

Rao is among the other officials named by the CBI in a 2018 chargesheet for alleged corruption in the 2005 Antrix-Devas satellite deal, which was annulled by the former UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh through a decision in February 2011.

In September 2025, the special court had directed the CBI to probe the roles of former ISRO officials, S K Das and R G Nadathur, a former IAS officer, in the Antrix-Devas deal, after Rao alleged that they were party to the decisions on the deal but were not investigated by the central agency.

The CBI presented a supplementary chargesheet in the Delhi CBI special court on March 7, 2026, on its investigations against the two former ISRO officers as per the court orders.

The satellite deal that wasn’t

Under the failed 2005 Antrix- Devas deal, ISRO was supposed to lease two communication satellites for 12 years at a cost of Rs 167 crore to Devas Multimedia. The startup was to provide multimedia services to mobile platforms in India using the space band or S-band transponders on ISRO’s GSAT 6 and 6A satellites, built at a cost of Rs 766 crore.

The UPA government annulled the deal in February 2011, citing the requirement of space spectrum allocated for the satellite services of Devas for security needs. The deal was cancelled after media reports cited it as a “sweetheart deal” and another instance of corruption under the UPA regime after the 2G scam.

Devas Multimedia’s foreign investors are presently fighting legal battles in the US and Europe for the realisation of the compensation amounts awarded by international tribunals over the Antrix-Devas deal cancellation by ISRO’s Antrix Corp and the Government of India.