The legal dispute between Cairn Energy Plc (CEP) and the Union government has taken an ugly turn with the British oil major filing a lawsuit in New York, seeking to enforce an international arbitral tribunal's award by seizing assets of Air India. The move follows a December 2020 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) which declared the Indian government's Rs 10,247 crore tax demand from Cairn Energy inconsistent with the India-UK bilateral investment treaty. In early 2015, the Indian tax authorities slapped a tax demand on Cairn Energy on the grounds it had made capital gains of Rs 24,500 crore in a group reorganisation. The genesis of the dispute lies in the retrospective amendment to a section of the I-T Act in 2012 under the watch of then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. At the time, the levy was slapped on Vodafone Plc. While the UPA-2 lost credibility due to the decision, it is unfortunate the NDA's approach hasn't been any different.