Experts bat for

space law
Special Correspondent
BENGALURU: 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.

Law needed
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

India does not have a

space law to protect
sovereign, public or
commercial interests
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.

New entrepreneurs
K.R. Sridhara Murthi, former Managing Director of ISROs Antrix Corporation, said
a national law should have
preceded ISROs 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
ve 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.