New Delhi: Courts in five countries including the US and the UK have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return USD 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 USD 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.
Of these, the December 21 award from a three-member tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands has been recognised and confirmed by courts in the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada and France, three people with knowledge of the matter said.
