Blog Posts
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SEBI decides to make disclosure of pledged shares by Promoters mandatory
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] SEBI has finally decided to make disclosure of shares held by Promoters in listed entities owned by them mandatory (see the press release). The relevant paragraph reads as under:- “To enhance the disclosure requirements, SEBI Board, in its meeting held today, decided to make it mandatory on the part of promoters…
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FDI and Globalisation: Where Does India’s Policy Stand?
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] (This is a cross-post from the Law and Other Things Blog) The theme for the January 2009 issue of Halsbury’s Law Monthly is Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Globalisation. The issue carries two articles that generally deal with FDI and three that specifically discuss issues on Indian policy. The first, an…
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SAT Sets Aside Orders Against NSDL and CDSL
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] In 2007, the Adjudicating Officer of SEBI had passed orders against National Securities Depository Ltd. (NSDL) and Central Depository Services India Ltd. (CDSL) imposing a penalty of Rs. 5 crores (Rs. 50 million) and Rs. 3 crores (Rs. 30 million) respectively. The adjudication arose out of the scam in connection with…
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Satyam Update 3 – is pledge of shares insider trading?
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] The Economic Times reports today (17th January 2009) that SEBI is examining whether, in law, pledge of shares amounts to Insider Trading. The SEBI Committee, as the report importantly adds, will also consider whether the law should be amended whereby pledge of Promoters’ shares would now be required to be disclosed.…
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Liberalisation of External Commercial Borrowings
[Posted by Umakanth Varottil] While most attention was shifted over the last few days towards the developments in Satyam, there have been some policy announcements further liberalising the external commercial borrowings (ECBs) that merit consideration. On January 2, 2009, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced policy changes to the ECB policy as follows: –…
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Satyam Update 2 – What are the wrongs?
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] This series was proposed by the first post to take the Satyam Episode as a case study to understand what laws apply and whether and how are they appropriate to punish wrong doings. For this purpose, let us consider what are the alleged wrongs? To start with, let us shortlist some…
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Clifford Chance v. DCIT: Territorial nexus in international taxation
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] A recent decision of the Bombay High Court in Clifford Chance v. DCIT revisits interesting legal issues connected to the taxation of non-residents under Section 9 of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Section 9(1) deals with “income deemed to accrue or arise in India”. The relevant part of the Section read…
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Satyam Update 1 – some quick points
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] Some quick thoughts and updates from my side, based on published data. Later, I propose to list a few of the legal provisions that would need to be examined. The idea is to see what the present law provides for dealing with the allegations in the alleged “Satyam Fraud”. 1. The…
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Satyam Computers – “Admission” of mammoth “fraud” – discussion and some updates
[Posted by Jayant Thakur] Ramalinga Raju, Chairman, of Satyam Computers is reported to have “admitted fraud” of Rs. 5040 crores (see amongst numerous other reports, this report). Without intending to overstate, I think, for India, this episode may be bigger than what Enron was for US. So many fundamental questions are likely to arise that…
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All-pervasive lack of governance in the system
[Posted by Somasekhar Sundaresan] I wrote the following in my column in Business Standard today:- It is always tempting to write a ‘year that was’ piece towards the end of December. This column will not do so. Instead, it seeks to look at three unrelated current events that would remind one of how another year…