Devas Multimedia secures court orders to seize AAI, Air India assets in Canada: report
05 Jan 2022
A Canadian court is reported to have authorsed the seizure of assets belonging to the Airport Authority of India and Air India held with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the Quebec province and internationally, in a long-running legal battle between of satellite maker Devas Multimedia and Indian space authorities.
In two separate orders, he Superior Court of Quebec on 24 November and 21 December ordered seizure of assets of the Indian airport operator AAI worth around $6.8 million held by the IATA.
While the value of the confiscated Air India assets wasn’t immediately available, the court order comes as a key victory for the shareholders of Devas Multimedia.
An Economic Times report citing representatives of the shareholders said they have so far seized more than $30 million in India-owned assets under the orders of the Canadian court.
According to reports, Air India had removed its ticket inventory from the global distribution system linked to the IATA on 22 December.
Bengaluru-based Devas has won several arbitral awards, including a $1.3 billion (including interest and chargers) order at the International Chamber of Commerce’s court of arbitration over a 2011 cancelled satellite deal with Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Agency. Its overseas shareholders approached courts in the US, Canada and elsewhere, accusing India of failing to honour the arbitral awards and seeking to capture the country’s assets abroad. They also hired former Elliott Management executive Jay Newman to help collect the arbitral awards, say reports.