On March 4, 2019 Devex reported that the US Supreme Court “handed down a landmark ruling in favor of a group of Indian villagers looking to sue the International Finance Corp. – the private sector arm of the World Bank – for its support for the coal-fired Tata Mundra Power Plant. The villagers said the project contaminated groundwater, killed marine life, and ejected coal ash into the air. IFC did not contest that the damage occurred, but argued it is immune from liability under U.S. law.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-1 that IFC is ‘not absolutely immune from suit’ since it can be held liable under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act for ‘commercial activity which has a sufficient nexus to the United States.’
However, the immunity issue is still not settled. Questions remain about whether development finance counts as ‘commercial activity,’ and whether the IFC project in India has ‘sufficient nexus’ to America, and these will now be fought out in Washington, D.C., district court.”
You may read the article on the Devex internet site.