Blog Posts
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Are InvITs Bankruptcy-Remote or Bankruptcy-Orphaned?
[Aditya Kashyap is an associate at Argus Partners and Arnika Dwivedi is a Management Trainee at Vedanta] Infrastructure Investment Trusts (“InvITs”) stemmed as a prominent route to commercialise operational infrastructure assets, and attracting long term capital. They have a hybrid structure which combines trust-based ownerships, outright project level asset ownership, listed units with mandatory distribution and pass-through taxation. They…
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India’s Retreat from Arbitration: A Wake-Up Call for the Arbitration Community
[Manan Shukla is an Advocate specialising in complex commercial disputes and international arbitration] In June 2024, the Government of India (GoI) issued an Office Memorandum (OM) that marked a significant departure from its prior support for arbitration. The OM proposed removing arbitration clauses from contracts below INR 10 crore, citing concerns regarding costs, delay, arbitrator quality and lack…
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Greenwashing as Securities Fraud: Exploring Liability for Misstatements in Sustainability Reporting
[Kamal Nambiar is a 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student and Shruti Ghosh is a 2nd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) metrics into capital markets has made sustainability credentials a meaningful driver of investment decisions across several jurisdictions, including India. As ESG investment has…
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Interpreting ‘Users’ Under India’s Deal Value Threshold
[Swechha Gupta and Animisha Dwivedi are fifth-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at the National Law Institute University (NLIU), Bhopal] The Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 introduced a Deal Value Threshold (“DVT”) into India’s merger control regime. Under the framework, combinations with a transaction value exceeding ₹2,000 crore must now be notified to the Competition Commission of India, provided that the target…
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When Arbitration Procedure Becomes Litigation
[Prashant Narang is Deputy Director – Research and Programmes and Renuka Sane is Managing Director at TrustBridge Rule of Law Foundation] Arbitration is meant to be a private, expeditious alternative to court-based dispute resolution. Yet two provisions of India’s Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Arbitration Act”) — section 11 (appointment of arbitrators) and section 29A (extension of time to make an award)…
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SEBI’s Public Private Partnership Classification and its Implications for Renewable InvITs
[Shivam Gupta is a 4th year BA LLB (Hons) student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] On 27 November 2025, Sustainable Energy Infra Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd. submitted a request letter to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) under the SEBI (Informal Guidance) Scheme, 2003. The request sought clarification on whether renewable energy assets materialised…
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US DOJ’s New Corporate Enforcement Policy: A Practical Guide for Indian Companies
[Kartikey Mahajan is a Partner, Prerna Jain and Bhavya Chengappa are Principal Associates, all part of the Dispute Resolution practice group of Khaitan and Co.] On 10 March 2026, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued its first-ever department-wide Corporate Enforcement and Voluntary Self-Disclosure Policy (CEP), which is a critical risk-management framework for companies, including Indian ones, operating globally. CEP offers a…
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A Proposal to Transpose the Delaware Appraisal Remedy to Indian Squeeze-outs
[Subham Kumar Agarwal is an upcoming fourth-year student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] India’s public takeover regime is largely frontloaded with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) imposing significant ex-ante discipline on the players. Yet where an acquirer holding significantly high shares in a company, usually following a takeover, attempts to acquire…
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One Size Fits None: Reading Indian REIT and InvIT Data Against a One-Dimensional Leverage Cap
[Varun Soni is a graduate from the National Law School of India University, and an upcoming associate at AZB and Partners] Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) operate under a peculiar financial straitjacket. According to their governing regulations, they must distribute at least 90% of their distributable cash flow to unitholders. These…
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Personal Insolvency and Cheque Dishonour: A Critique of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Dinesh Chand Surana
[Shubhansh Thakur is an advocate practising before the Courts in New Delhi with Keystone Partners] Recently, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court (SC) in Dinesh Chand Surana v. UCO Bank (“Surana”) referred two questions to a three-judge bench: first, whether proceedings under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (“NI Act”) are quasi-criminalin nature with a tilt toward the criminal…