US Court Allows Pannun to Serve Civil Notice on NSA Doval as India Rejects Move
An American federal court has permitted Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun to deliver civil legal notices to senior Indian national security officials through domestic judicial channels. The judicial ruling authorizes formal service of process directed at National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and former intelligence chief Samant Goel. Court filings indicate that the United States State Department previously transmitted legal documentation to diplomatic representatives stationed at the Indian Embassy in Washington. The Ministry of External Affairs rejected the move, saying such judicial documents must be sent to the Ministry of Law and Justice in India. Official government representatives dismissed the foreign civil litigation, characterizing the underlying legal claims as frivolous, fabricated, and malicious.
Procedural Disputes and Diplomatic Transmissions
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that a request to serve judicial documents in India can only be routed through the Ministry of Law and Justice, the country's designated central authority. The civil lawsuit filed before the American court names several current and former Indian security officials alongside institutional government respondents. The complaint alleges that Indian officials, including Doval and Goel, were involved in a plot to assassinate Pannun in New York in 2023. The Government of India has repeatedly rejected allegations that its officials were involved in any such plot. The diplomatic note was transmitted under Section 1608(a)(4) of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, informing India of a 60-day deadline to respond to the complaint, according to The Wire. The civil lawsuit names 50 unnamed defendants alongside the Government of India, according to The Wire.
What the Court Order Requires
The November 9 order was issued by the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where Judge Katherine Polk Failla granted Pannun's request to pursue service of summons on Doval and Goel through Indian courts, ANI reported. Pannun has been asked to submit a proposed packet by November 30 with copies of the summons, a proposed order specifying the method of service and the relevant Indian legal provisions. The ruling concerns the procedure for serving the documents and is not a finding on the allegations made in the lawsuit. The civil lawsuit is separate from the criminal case against Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in February 2026 to charges including murder-for-hire conspiracy.