Days after a Paris court awarded Devas Multimedia a lien on a €3.8 million Paris apartment that housed the Indian Deputy Chief of Mission late last year, Devas shareholders said they have now registered a mortgage against the property.
A Devas Multimedia spokesman told Business Today that the French court ordered a lien on the property in our favour, and a mortgage was registered.
Britain's Cairn Energy, which also had arbitral awards against the Indian government, had also petitioned French courts for a lien on the same property. They dropped their challenge as part of their settlement with the Indian government.
The government of Cairn Energy initially refused to honour a December 2020 arbitration award, but it brought a law in the last monsoon session of Parliament to scrap all retrospective tax demands and refund money collected.
After it faced the possibility of its overseas assets seized by Cairn Energy, like flats used by Indian diplomatic staff in Paris and Air India planes in the US, it was taken over by Cairn Energy to recover dues.
The case of Cairn has nothing to do with Devas. The shareholders of thevas will continue to enforce the arbitration judgments until they are paid. The Modi government was wise to settle with Cairn because it is futile to evade payment on arbitral awards that have been upheld in every instance. The spokesman said something.
Jay Newman, senior advisor to the Devas shareholders, said that India has assets like this all over the world, this is just the beginning. The Indian legal challenge against Devas' move to seize assets of the Airports Authority of India AAI and Air India, which is currently being sold to the Tata group in Canada, has had limited success.
A court in Quebec halted the seizure of AAI's assets and reduced the recovery of Air India's assets held by IATA by 50%.
The Indian government has not responded to the latest statements by Devas shareholders on the Paris judicial award yet.
Sources say the government is awaiting a copy of the order through official channels before moving towards a legal challenge.
The Indian government lost every round of arbitration and lost every appeal of those decisions. The Indian government is losing every attempt to block enforcement around the world. The Devas Multimedia spokeswoman said.
The company wants the Indian government to negotiate a settlement with it like they did with Cairn Energy.
India has lost and we are proceeding to enforce the judgement. We will continue to seize every state asset we identify until India returns to the table and negotiates in good faith on a settlement. The Devas Multimedia spokeswoman said.
Asked why Devas delayed informing the media about the award from the French court, the company's spokeswoman said Devas prefers the element of surprise.