Ex-ISRO chief Nair moves CAT against blacklisting

Indian space agency's former chairman G Madhavan Nair today filed a petition before the Central Administrative Tribunal challenging the government's decision to bar him from holding any official post.

Indian space agency's former chairman G Madhavan Nair on Monday filed a petition before the Central Administrative Tribunal challenging the government's decision to bar him from holding any official post.

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In his petition, Nair has stated that the government took such a step without even hearing his version and his long years of service as a scientist were never considered before the action was taken.

The petition is expected to be taken up either on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Nair was a visiting professor at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)-owned Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) here but lost the post following the government order.

The Jan 13 action against Nair and three other scientists came for their alleged lapses in finalising the $300-million Antrix-Devas contract. The deal between ISRO's commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, and Bangalore-based private firm Devas Multimedia Services Ltd was to offer digital services using the scarce S-band spectrum (radio waves) through the transponders of ISRO's proposed GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A advanced satellites.