A federal judge in New York ruled on Monday, November 9, that Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the U.S.-based Sikh separatist who alleges Indian officials plotted to assassinate him in New York in 2023, can pursue serving his civil lawsuit on India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Samant Goel through courts in Delhi. U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York granted the request after earlier attempts to serve the two officials through other channels were unsuccessful. The allegations in the lawsuit have not been established in court, and India's government has dismissed the suit as unwarranted and unsubstantiated.
Source: Medium Pulse, Nov. 10, 2026
The order does not mean Doval or Goel has been personally served, and it is not a finding on the merits of the case. It opens a procedural route — service through the Indian judicial system under the Hague Convention framework for serving judicial documents abroad and relevant provisions of India's Code of Civil Procedure — that Pannun's legal team proposed after direct service proved impossible.
Source: Indrajit Global News, Nov. 10, 2026
What Pannun must file by November 30
Under the court's directions, Pannun must submit the required documents and supporting legal material by November 30, 2026. The submission must include the summons, a proposed order explaining the method of service, a formal request to the Indian courts, and the relevant provisions of Indian law. Only after the court approves that package will the documents be forwarded to the appropriate Indian courts for delivery.
The parallel track: summons delivered to India itself
Separately, the U.S. State Department confirmed it transmitted the summons and complaint in the civil lawsuit to the Indian Embassy in Washington through a diplomatic note on October 9, 2026 — the step that formally serves the Government of India, which is itself a named defendant. The department clarified that transmitting the documents was a procedural requirement and did not mean the U.S. government supported Pannun's allegations or had reached any conclusion about the claims. Reporting based on court filings says the diplomatic note was dated September 30 and its transmission was confirmed in filings on October 28.
Source: RMN News, Nov. 10, 2026
What the lawsuit alleges
Pannun filed the civil lawsuit on September 17, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (case 24 Civ. 7021). It names the Government of India, Doval, Goel, a former RAW officer surnamed Yadav, Indian national Nikhil Gupta and several unidentified defendants. The complaint alleges — as an allegation that remains unproven — that Indian officials and others conspired in 2023 to arrange Pannun's assassination in the United States. Monday's order concerns only how the case papers can be delivered; the court has made no finding of liability against any defendant.
Everything the lawsuit claims about an assassination plot is an allegation at this stage. India's Ministry of External Affairs has consistently rejected the claims and called the civil suit "unwarranted and unsubstantiated." The November 9 order decides a service-of-process question only.
Background: two cases, one alleged plot
The civil suit runs alongside a separate U.S. criminal case over the same alleged murder-for-hire plot. In that criminal case, Nikhil Gupta is in U.S. custody, and his sentencing has been reported as scheduled for November 20, 2026. Pannun, the legal counsel of Sikhs for Justice, is designated a terrorist by the Indian government, and Sikhs for Justice has been declared an unlawful association under India's Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act — facts the Indian government cites when it rejects his claims, and which Pannun's side disputes in its own filings.
Why service has been the fight
Getting the papers to the defendants has consumed much of this case's life. Pannun's team tried other channels first, including an attempted delivery during a U.S. visit by Doval that a court later ruled did not amount to valid service, and India objected to service by postal channels. Judge Failla's November 9 order is the court's answer to that deadlock: if Pannun's November 30 package is approved, an Indian court — not a U.S. process server — will be asked to deliver the summons in Delhi.
What happens next
The immediate deadline is November 30, 2026, when Pannun must file the summons, proposed order, formal request to the Indian courts and supporting Indian-law material for approval. If the court approves the method, the documents go to the Indian courts, and only then would the clock start for Doval and Goel to respond to a lawsuit they have so far not answered in the U.S. proceedings. The separate criminal case, with Gupta's reported November 20 sentencing, will move on its own track in the same courthouse district.