Oil and gas exploration and development company Cairn Energy has picked lawyers from Shearman & Sterling and Shepherd and Wedderburn, as well as former India solicitor general Harish Salve, to bring a $5.6bn arbitration claim against India over a disputed tax assessment.
The claim has been brought through Cairn UK Holdings, a direct subsidiary of London-listed Cairn Energy, under a bilateral investment treaty between the UK and India. The arbitration will be seated in The Hague in the Netherlands with hearings set to begin in 2017. The disputes follows a tax crackdown by India on offshore subsidiaries, often demanded retroactively.
