New Delhi: Billionaire Gautam Adani and his nephew Sagar Adani are now deemed to have been served with legal summons from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after a federal court formally approved an agreement allowing service through their American lawyers, ending a 14-month standoff that saw repeated objections from the Indian government block delivery of the court papers.According to a court filing submitted on Friday (January 30) to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, “on January 23, 2026, U.S. counsel for Defendants agreed to service of process, thereby obviating the need for the Court to rule on the Motion”.This removed the need for the court to rule on the regulator’s earlier request to bypass Indian authorities and allow service by email or via the Adanis’ US lawyers.The court subsequently so ordered the stipulation on January 30, formally approving the arrangement and completing service of process.The SEC informed Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis that it was submitting “the attached Stipulation and Proposed Order agreed to by the parties and filed with the consent of defendants Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani”. The filing states that “The Stipulation and Proposed Order resolves the SEC’s pending Motion for an Order Authorising Alternative Service Methods”.The stipulation, a formal agreement between opposing parties in a legal case, lays out the timeline for the defendants to respond to the SEC’s allegations.Under the agreement, “Defendants shall file their responsive pleading under Rule 12(a) of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure or serve their motions to dismiss the Complaint under Rule 12(b) of the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure on or before 90 days following the date that the Court so-orders this Stipulation.”In other words, following the court’s January 30 order, the Adanis now 90 days to either file a formal response to the charges or file motions asking the court to dismiss the case.The agreement also specifies that “except with respect to service, Defendants expressly preserve all defences in this litigation, including but not limited to defences relating to personal jurisdiction”. This means the Adanis retain the right to argue that the US court does not have authority over them, even though they have agreed to accept service of the summons.The stipulation notes that “because Defendants reside in India, on February 17, 2025, the SEC submitted a formal request to India’s Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs for assistance under the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters but service on the Defendants has not yet been effected”.The Hague Convention is an international treaty that governs how legal documents are delivered across borders. India’s Ministry of Law and Justice is the designated authority under this treaty for handling such requests here.However, India blocked the attempts multiple times. In April 2025, the ministry rejected the SEC’s request, claiming the documents lacked required seals and signatures, even though the agency said these formalities are not required under the treaty and were never needed in previous successful service attempts to India.When the SEC resubmitted its request with detailed explanations in May 2025, India’s ministry stopped responding to follow-up inquiries for months. Then in December 2025, the ministry raised a new objection, citing an internal SEC regulation and suggesting the agency lacked authority to use the Hague Convention for this case. The SEC called this objection baseless.The repeated roadblocks prompted the SEC to file a motion on January 21 asking the court for permission to bypass the treaty process entirely and serve the summons either by email or directly through the Adanis’ US legal representatives.Just two days after the SEC filed that motion, the Adanis’ US counsel agreed to accept service, the court’s January 30 order approving the stipulation formally resolved the dispute and waived the requirement for service through the Hague Convention process. By agreeing to service on January 23, the defendants waived their right to insist on service through the formal Hague Convention process, which would have required cooperation from Indian authorities.The Adanis are represented by three prominent US law firms. Sullivan & Cromwell, Nixon Peabody and Hecker Fink are listed as attorneys for Gautam and Sagar Adani in the court filing.One of Adani’s lawyers is Robert Giuffra Jr, co-chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, who is also representing US President Donald Trump in efforts to overturn his 2024 criminal conviction.The SEC filed civil fraud charges against Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani on November 20, 2024, alleging they orchestrated a bribery scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts.The charges relate to a September 2021 bond offering by Adani Green Energy that raised over $175 million from US investors. The SEC alleges the offering materials contained false statements about the company’s anti-corruption programs.Federal prosecutors filed parallel criminal charges the same day, including securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and securities fraud. The criminal case is being handled separately from the SEC’s civil enforcement action.The Adani Group has consistently called the allegations baseless and vowed to pursue all legal remedies available to them.Note: This report has been edited since publication with updates on the summons having been deemed to be served.