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London court orders Hughes to pay Subhash Chandra over $50 million

An Indian telecommunications company has won a five-year-long legal battle against Hughes Space and Communications International over a cancelled satellite contract.

The London Court of International Arbitration ordered Hughes to pay $38 million to Bombay-based ASC Ltd, owned by Indian media mogul Subhash Chandra, plus up to $20 million in interest and court costs to be decided at a future date, the latest issue of the Space News reported.

Hughes Space and Communications International is part of Hughes Electronics Corporation's satellite manufacturing arm, which was sold to Seattle-based Boeing Co last year.

ASC and Hughes signed a $700-million contract in January 1995 for two large mobile-telephone satellites that ASC was planning as part of its Agrani project.

ASC made an initial payment of $38 million to Hughes as part of the contract. But in late 1996, Hughes stopped work on Agrani, saying that the project's backers were unable to finance further work.

But ASC argued that Hughes stopped work on Agrani because of its greater interest in a contract with the Asia-Pacific Mobile Telecommunications consortium of Singapore, a Chinese-backed concern that was planning a similar satellite system over East Asia. It is this version the court believed was close to the truth.

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