Shareholders of Devas Multimedia on Tuesday said they will continue to pursue enforcement of the $1.3 billion arbitral award won against the commercial arm of India’s space agency in 2015. They however said reports of a $1 billion settlement between the Indian government and British Cairn Energy was encouraging.“The reports of a settlement are encouraging,” Jay Newman, senior advisor to Devas shareholders, said responding to reports of Cairn Energy accepting India’s offer of a $1 billion refund after scrapping its retrospective tax law. “But the Indian government must pay all its debts. Not ‘a few’, not ‘some’. Until then, Devas will continue to pursue full payment in courts around the world.”Shareholders of Devas are currently pursuing cases in multiple global courts, including those in the US and the UK, to force India to pay them $1.3 billion in damages for scrapping a 2005 deal to build two communication satellites that would use the S-band spectrum to offer hybrid satellite and terrestrial communication services throughout India.

Devas was the second firm after Cairn Energy to approach a New York court earlier this year to seize the assets of Air India in the US, as reparation for India’s failure to honour the arbitration award. UK-based Cairn Energy on Tuesday said it would drop all litigation to seize Indian properties within a couple of days of getting the $1 billion refund, PTI reported.However, unlike in the cases with Vodafone and Cairn Energy where litigation against India stems from its retrospective tax law, in the case of Devas Multimedia, India has alleged that the 2005 deal between Devas and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation, was fraught with fraud.Earlier this year, Antrix moved the National Company Law Tribunal to wind up Devas Multimedia over charges of fraud. Following this, Devas’ shareholders stepped in to collect on the $1.3 billion award, and have found favour in courts in the UK and the US to do so, which have ruled against Antrix’s efforts to derail the case so far.ET reported last month that the US District Court for the Western District of Washington allowed Devas’ shareholders to track down assets of Antrix to enforce the arbitral award.The court had ordered Antrix to share information, including documents showing any transfer of assets, money and business contracts from Antrix to NewSpace India — the recently set up commercial space arm of the Department of Space — to Devas’ shareholders and the court by September 17.