Tuesday, November 26, 2019

IndiGo director asks US Court to revoke summons

Mumbai: Carrier IndiGo’s independent director Anupam Khanna has asked a US court to quash a subpoena or a legal summon against him for discovery of documents to be used in a separate case the airline’s founder Rahul Bhatia has filed against his partner and co-founder Rakesh Gangwal.
On October 15, Bhatia and his IGE Group filed a petition in Maryland District Court against Khanna, accusing him of acting in concert with Gangwal, who Bhatia has legally accused of breaching the shareholders' agreement on IndiGo.
A subsequent subpoena from the court sought to extract documents of Khanna’s correspondence with Gangwal.
Bhatia filed the case on the alleged breach of shareholders’ agreement in the Indian branch of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) on October 1. Khanna’s attorneys said that the law invoked in the case filed against him provides “no authority for the subpoenas,” as it is a “private arbitration” and not a “foreign tribunal.” Khanna’s attorneys also said he is a citizen of India and nonparty to the Indian arbitration in LCIA. They said he is currently in Maryland but will return to India shortly.

“Petitioners are effectively placing the cart before the horse as they initiate premature discovery in a foreign jurisdiction, the State of Maryland, for use in a private arbitration that was initiated in India barely one month ago,” Khanna’s attorneys said.

The “documentary and testimonial evidence” that the subpoenas seek to extract from Khanna specifically refers to his correspondence with Gangwal since July 2018. According to the petition filed by Bhatia and his IGE Group, July 2018 is when Gangwal first demanded that Bhatia and his IGE Group’s controlling rights in the airline be diluted, a contention which along with others, snowballed into a very public feud between the two partners who set up and developed India’s biggest airline by passengers.
25/11/19 Anirban Chowdhury/Economic Times
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