Page 22 - Banking Finance March 2022

LEGAL UPDATE

that the law of inheritance would ap- which the daughters were not given Telecom Ventures as well as Deutsche
ply to partition of properties even if any share and could result in the Telekom.
the father had died intestate before daughter's heirs seeking to reclaim Government sources declined com-
1956. their rights over the properties. ment on the development. Bengaluru-
A bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Accepting arguments of advocate P V based Devas has won several arbitral
Krishna Murari gave the judgment and Yogeswaran, counsel for the woman awards over the cancelled satellite
said selfacquired properties of a per- petitioner, the bench said succession of deal with Antrix Corp, the commercial
son, who died intestate in 1949, would properties prior to 1956 would also in- arm of the Indian Space Research
devolve on his sole daughter, despite clude the daughter's right. Agency dating back to 2011.
the man admittedly living in a joint This includes a $1.3 billion award (in-
family, and could not have passed on French court orders freez- cluding interest and chargers) order at
to the deceased person's brother on ing of €3.8m Indian asset the International Chamber of
the basis of the survivorship law in Commerce's court of arbitration in
force prior to 1956 and upon his death on Devas' Plea 2015. The French court order reveals
to his children. A French court has granted a plea by that three investors CC/Devas
Writing the judgment, Justice Murari shareholders of satellite maker Devas Mauritius, Telcom Devas Mauritius and
said, "Since the property in question Multimedia claiming rights over a Paris Devas Employees Mauritius Pvt Ltd
was admittedly the self-acquired prop- apartment that houses India's Deputy sought the seizure of Indian govern-
erty of Marappa Gounder, despite the Chief of Mission in a bid to enforce a ment assets to enforce the contested
$1.3 billion arbitration award in the arbitration award.
family being in state of jointness upon
decade-long legal battle over a can-
his death intestate, his sole surviving In 2021, Devas's overseas shareholders
daughter Kupayee Ammal will inherit celled satellite deal. approached courts in the US, Canada
the same by inheritance and the prop- The court awarded the lien - a legal and elsewhere, accusing India of fail-
erty shall not devolve by survivorship." right over assets to cover debts - on ing to honour the arbitral awards and
September 25, 2021, according to a seeking to capture the country's assets
Referring to the ancient texts and
Smritis, Justice Murari said, "It is clear copy of the court order reviewed. The abroad. They also hired former Elliott
that ancient text as also the Smritis, upscale apartment in Paris's 16th Management executive Newman to
the commentaries written by various arrondissement is valued at €3.8mil- help collect the arbitral awards.
renowned learned persons and even lion, Devas said in a statement. Earlier this month, a Canadian court
judicial pronouncements have recog- "India has assets like this all over the authorised the seizure of assets belong-
nized the rights of several female world. This is just the beginning. We're ing to the Airport Authority of India
heirs, the wives and the daughter's planning many more seizures," Jay and Air India held with the Interna-
being the foremost of them." This Newman, senior adviser to Devas tional Air Transport Association (IATA)
could potentially open up disputes over Shareholders, a group that includes US in the Quebec province and interna-
properties partitioned prior to 1956 in investment firms Columbia Capital and tionally. T

Hyderabad: Crooks used 'hi-tech tools' to hack Mahesh bank server
Cyber fraudsters who siphoned off 12 crore from AP Mahesh Co-Operative Urban Bank have used sophisticated hacking
tools and even compromised the cell phone security of three account holders, believe investigators. Of the three account
holders, police managed to lay their hands on one customer, Vinod Kumar, who claimed he was unaware the fraudsters
used his bank account as a launchpad to transfer siphoned off funds to multiple bank accounts across the country.
The investigators now believe that the fraudsters who gained access to the server of the bank strategically on a non-
working day, have somehow managed to gain access to the three customer accounts. "In The Telangana State Co-
operative Apex Bank Limited (TSCAB) hacking case, the Nigerian fraudsters lured three account holders to provide
their bank account access details for money transfer through IMPS (Immediate Payment Service) channel by offering
commission.

22 | 2022 | MARCH | BANKING FINANCE