Uncertainty over company in PSM project handover

The Civil Court has dismissed a case filed by Public Service Media (PSM) against Sri Lankan company Tantri Trailers, over the “New Media Wave Transmission Station Project.” PSM had accused the company of failing to proceed with the project after it was awarded to them.

The aim of the project was to send radio frequencies into Maldives' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

PSM and TT signed the agreement on 3rd December 2017, with TT violating the agreement by not fulfilling the work required to establish a method to send frequencies to the EEZ, as was stated in PSM's lawsuit.

As per the lawsuit, PSM stated that they had repeatedly told the company to fulfil their terms of the agreement, with TT going against it. The lawsuit also requested the court to order the company to abide by the agreement and if the company cannot do so, have PSM acquire an estimate of the funds required to complete the project as one lump sum.

As was stated in the court sentence, when attempts had been made to deliver the documents to TT via the contact number and email that was included in the claim form, it had proven unsuccessful. The sentence also stated that due to the documents not being successfully delivered via email, PSM was told to share TT's current contact number in December 2023.

The Civil Court was informed about the information received by PSM regarding the address of the accused, and that the documents could not be delivered to TT via the information that was shared.

The sentence states that PSM was given the opportunity to deliver the documents to the accused and if they were to be delivered, PSM was requested to share that information to the court in February 2025.

The court was informed by PSM in March that they had been working with the Foreign Ministry and the Sri Lanka High Commission to acquire the information of the accused. Even though work was being done to deliver the documents, the proceedings of the event were not shared with the court.

As per the sentence passed by Judge Faisal Adam, the documents submitted along with the lawsuit states that there were transactions made between 2017 and 2019. It is also unclear whether the accused company even exists when attempts to communicate with them were made.

The sentence states in regards to the case submitted in 2023, if basic information cannot be acquired, then the case would not be able to move forward in court. The judge decided to void the claim form as steps could not be taken rather than keep the case in court.