It was only last week that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) and the insolvency proceedings initiated thereunder received a fillip from the Supreme Court in Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank (discussed here). Within a matter of a few days, a contrary result emerged from the Supreme Court in Chitra Sharma v. Union of India which has struck a temporary blow to the...
Supreme Court Affirms Creditor-Friendly Nature of Insolvency Law
Background The Supreme Court yesterday delivered its first substantive ruling under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) in Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank. Incidentally, this relates to the first corporate insolvency case to be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) after the Code came into effect in December 2016. The Supreme Court rejected a...
Supreme Court on Prosecuting a Company for Cheque Dishonour
The Supreme Court in N. Harihara Krishnan v. J. Thomas ruled yesterday on certain procedural aspects relating to the offence under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (“NI Act”) of dishonour of a cheque issued by a company. It held that any failure to include the company as an accused in the complaint at the outset (i.e. within the limitation period) would be fatal to the...
SEBI Informal Guidance on Profit Sharing Arrangements
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) clamped down on upside sharing arrangements between promoters or senior management of listed companies on the one hand and private equity investors on the other. Accordingly, the securities regulator amended the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (the “LODR Regulations”) to introduce regulation...
SAT Rejects Appeals in the United Spirits Case
We had earlier this year discussed SEBI’s ad-interim ex parte order in the United Spirits Limited (USL) case by which several persons (including Mr. Vijay Mallya) were prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in any securities, with some of them being restrained from holding positions as directors or key managerial personnel of any listed company. Against this, some of the persons...
SAT Order on “Shell” Companies
The issue of “shell” companies has captured the attention of the regulators over the last couple of years. There is a pervading sense of regulatory fear that, left unchecked, shell companies may be utilized for various illegal purposes, including money laundering. The Government has been taking steps at various levels to deal with what it visualizes as a menace of shell companies. One instance...
We’ve Moved! Launch of Our New Website
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website: , which is now live. This is intended to improve the experience of readers. Do explore the navigation button on the top right hand side for more content. Given the tremendous increase in guest contributions, we will shortly be devising a Submissions Policy, which will be available on the website. I would like to thank all our contributors...
The Companies Amendment Bill, 2017: Proposed Changes to Section 185
[Guest post by Amitabh Robin Singh, who is a corporate lawyer practising in Mumbai] With the Companies Amendment Bill, 2017 (“Amendment“) being passed by the Lok Sabha and sent to the Rajya Sabha, it would be pertinent to discuss one of the major changes proposed by the Amendment. The Amendment proposes to completely replace Section 185 of the Companies Act, 2013 (“2013...
SEBI Requires Disclosure of Loan Defaults
Over the last couple of years, there has been a steady regulatory move to create some connections between the banking system and the capital markets in order to address cases of loan defaults by companies, especially those listed on the stock exchanges. Take the case of wilful defaulters, who are effectively now kept out of the capital markets (as discussed here on this Blog). Another mechanism...
NCLT Order Admitting Essar Steel Insolvency
In one of the first high profile cases under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”), the Ahmedabad Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) yesterday issued its order admitting the insolvency petition brought by the State Bank of India (“SBI”) and Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”) as financial creditors of Essar Steel Limited. The insolvency of Essar Steel had earlier...
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