The Centre has not received any notice from the US District Court regarding the enforcement of the $1.4-billion Cairn arbitration award, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur told Parliament on Monday.

“India has not received any notice from the US District Court for enforcement of the Cairn award as per the procedure laid down under the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, 1965,” Thakur said.

In December, an international arbitration court in The Hague ruled against India in a retrospective taxation case that was filed by Cairn and awarded the Edinburgh-based oil and gas corporation approximately $1.2 billion in damages.

After a tense visit by Cairn CEO Simon Thomson last month during which he met with top officials at the ministry, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she is duty-bound to appeal the arbitration verdict to protect India’s sovereign right to tax.

Unlike the government’s ongoing dispute with British telecom corporation Vodafone, where India has challenged an arbitration award of $1.2 billion in the Singapore High Court even though the original verdict was delivered at The Hague, Thakur said any appeal against the Cairn award will be filed at The Hague.

“The seat of arbitration in the case of Cairn arbitration is The Hague and not Singapore. Appeal if any in the case of Cairn has to be filed in the Hague,” Thakur said.

“Further any such decision on filing of appeal or otherwise is taken only after careful consideration of all aspects of the matter,” he added.

Cairn has reportedly approached courts in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Canada and France for recognition of its arbitration award, after which the company would be able to seize Indian assets overseas to recoup the award.

Published on March 22, 2021