India does not have a space law to protect sovereign, public or commercial interests

Fifty years after it started the space programme and later entered the global market with products and satellite launches, India does not have a space law to protect sovereign, public or commercial interests, legal and space industry experts expressed at a roundtable here on Saturday.

As global trends change fast, a clear and comprehensive law will also help a budding space industry to grow, speakers said at the discussions on “Commercialisation and privatisation of outer space: issues for national Space legislation.”

The roundtable was organised by the National Law School of India University and Delhi-based TMT Law Practice.

G. Madhavan Nair, former Chairman of ISRO and Space Commission, said a law was needed to ensure that space assets and applications are used for the right causes.

“Today you can take images of almost anything on Earth. Broadcasting and Internet have grown tremendously. There are 15,000 objects in space orbits [that can threaten working satellites.] The future will be much more complex as space tourism gets popular. In this region, India is the only custodian of remote sensing data. How can all this activity be regulated?” he asked.

While ISRO early this year launched discussions on a law, space activities are currently guided by a handful of international space agreements, the Constitution, national laws, the Satellite Communications (SatCom) Policy of 2000 and the revised Remote sensing policy or 2011. “However, the absence of a law has not hampered the programmes,” Mr. Nair said.

K.R. Sridhara Murthi, former Managing Director of ISRO’s Antrix Corporation, said a national law should have preceded ISRO’s international launch services as the country could face huge liabilities. As a new set of entrepreneurs had emerged and government spending in the sector increased, the risk scenario was also changing.

Stephan Hobe, Director, Institute of Air & Space Law, University of Cologne, Germany, said India is among the five countries that do not have a space law; while 15 others including the US, Russia, Japan, China, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, have laws based broadly on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

The speakers suggested that the law include a regulator, registration and licence of private operators, compensation for harm caused by space objects, insurance, investor disputes, and rescue of space tourists, environmental damage and handling of intellectual property issues.