Munmun Kaur
Published On: January 10, 2022 at 12:05 IST
Recently, a Canadian Court dismissed the plea of Air India (AI) that sought quashing of the Order that allowed shareholders of Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd to seize the airline’s assets. The dismissal now enables Devas Multimedia Pvt Ltd to seize up to half of Air India’s funds held at International Air Transport Association (IATA) retrospectively and prospectively. Although, there have been no comments from Air India following this setback as of yet.
Devas in a statement quoted from the Court Order that the highly compelling allegations in the sworn declarations in the support of the two seizures, satisfy the criterion of the objective fear that the recovery of the amounts due under the treaty awards to plaintiffs would be seriously in peril and jeopardy if the seizures were denied.
Devas also said that the Court granted Airport Authority of India (AAI) motion to quash pending service of the proceedings on Airport Authority of India. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) had raised the question of state immunity since it is an agency of the State whereas, Air India is not one.
Earlier this week, Devas spokesperson mentioned that over $30 million have thus far been seized below the IATA motion and that the firm has filed multiple petitions to implement arbitration awards towards federal government of India.