In a crucial judgment on the scope of penalty provisions in tax and other civil liability laws, the Supreme Court has significantly broadened their scope (Union of India v. Dharmendra Textile Processors, CA Nos. 10289 – 10303 of 2003, decided on September 29, 2008, per Pasayat J.). The judgment of the three-judge Bench on a reference from a Division Bench overrules the important decision in Dilip...
The Tax Evasion Debate Revisited
An earlier post here had looked at the interrelation between the ratios of Azadi Bachao Andolan and McDowell on the issue of tax evasion, and concluded that the stricture against tax evasion laid down in McDowell hadn’t been completely laid to rest by Azadi, and that there still was scope for challenging a proposed transaction as being motivated purely by tax avoidance. A recent decision of the...
Legality of Derivatives: Emerging Signs
Readers will recall that over the last few months several companies had entered into derivative transactions with banks wherein they were required to pay significant amounts of money to banks. When faced with claims from the banks, these companies challenged the validity of these derivative transactions in various courts in India, including on the ground that derivatives constituted wagering...
Anti-Competitive Agreements: What can we Expect from the Competition Commission?
(We are very pleased to welcome Farhad Sorabjee as a guest contributor on the Blog. Mr. Sorabjee is a partner at the Mumbai offices of J. Sagar Associates and leads the firm’s competition practice. His contributions will certainly bolster the competition law focus on this Blog. In the following post, he considers the nature of penalties that competition authorities worldwide have imposed under...
Links on Competition Law
(The following post contributed by R.V. Anuradha points to some recent information and materials pertaining to competition law) 1. What will the Competition Commission of India (CCI) look like? LiveMint considers some of the names of people being considered for membership of the CCI. 2. Other interesting developments in the recent past are a US Department of Justice (DOJ) paper on Unilateral...
SEBI moves to tighten insider trading norms by prohibiting opposing transactions
In an earlier post, Mihir had remarked that while arguments for legalizing insider trading are interesting, there is a long way to go before they are actually accepted by legal systems. SEBI’s recent move to tighten insider trading norms is a case in point. ET reports that SEBI will soon amend its regulations to ban insiders from any opposing transaction within a period of six months. ‘Insider’...
Top 200 World Universities
Here is a link to the list of top 200 universities around the world:
Any idea why so few are from India?
Welcome to our New Contributors
Over the last few weeks, we have been fortunate to have several new contributors join us. This has significantly expanded the scope of the discussion on this Blog into areas that were hitherto not focused on, such as taxation, arbitration and international trade. To briefly introduce them: Jayant Thakur is a practising Chartered Accountant in Mumbai, with interests in securities and corporate...
Some Thoughts on the P-Note Volte Face
In an earlier post, Mihir highlighted some key decisions taken by SEBI earlier this week. One decision regarding P-Notes merits greater discussion. A little less than a year ago (October 16, 2007 to be precise), SEBI introduced bold measures to curb the use of participatory notes (P-notes) and other offshore derivative instruments (ODIs) by foreign investors in the Indian stock markets. In a...
Unique avoidance of Takeover Regulations in RIL?
How can Promoters hold shares in a listed company but still ensure that they are not counted as part of Promoters’ holding for purposes such as Takeover Regulations which place various limits over creeping acquisitions, maximum holding, etc.? While there could be many ways, but to talk of something current, if one goes by comments (here) by CNBC’s correspondent Sajeet Manghat regarding RIL , it...
Recent Comments