UK’s Cairn Energy Plc has brought a lawsuit in the US court that potentially can lead to seizing of Air India’s overseas assets such as airplanes to recover USD 1.72 billion from the Indian government which an international arbitration tribunal had awarded after overturning levy of retrospective taxes.
Cairn on May 14 filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking declaration of Air India as the ‘alter ego of Indian government’ by virtue of control and as a state-owned company it “legally indistinct from the state itself”, three sources with direct knowledge of the development said.