Cairn a step closer to seizing assets if India doesn’t pay up

Courts in five countries, including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc – a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay, sources said.

Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4-billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country’s revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax.