[Guest post by Malek Shipchandler, who practices law with a firm in Mumbai. Views are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the firm.] The ongoing controversy at one of India’s most celebrated companies, built on high standards of corporate governance, raises some interesting issues for consideration from a whistleblower perspective. It was earlier reported that the Indian...
SAT on Interest Payment Obligations under the SEBI Act
Readers may recall that the securities law were amended in 2013 in order to confer significant enforcement powers on SEBI. This was done initially by the Securities Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 that was promulgated with effect from 18 July 2013. The Ordinance had to be re-promulgated before the amendments finally took shape by way of the Securities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2014. Among the...
Shareholding Thresholds for Oppression and Class Actions
The Tata-Mistry episode has brought into focus the minimum shareholding threshold required for a minority shareholder to bring an action for oppression and mismanagement under sections 241 to 244 of the Companies Act, 2013. In a piece in Bloomberg Quint titled Minority Shareholder Protection as a Numbers Game, I examine the implications of such shareholding thresholds that operate as a filter...
Announcing the Socio-Legal Review Forum
[Announcement from the Editorial Board of the Socio-Legal Review] The Editorial Board of the Socio-Legal Review is proud to announce the launch of its online companion/blog, the Socio-Legal Review Forum. Since its inception in 2005, SLR has strived to further the discourse on the intersection of law and society. Over the past decade, it has provided both students and scholars...
Legal Rights and the Vicissitudes of a “Comma”
“For want of a comma, we have this case”: thus began a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit rendered earlier this week in O’Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy. The punctuation mark in question was more specifically the “Oxford comma”, which has been referred to as “an optional comma before the word ‘and’ at the end of a list”. This case involved a law enacted in...
The Potential for an Online Private Placement Platform in India
[Guest post by Rishi A, a 5th year at Hidayatullah National Law University, Chhattisgarh] The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has a program that it runs for small and medium scaled enterprises called the ELITE Programme. Providing services like professional advice from industry experts about value-creation and also assistance in issues relating to raising of funds, it requires the enterprises to (i)...
SEBI’s Interference in a Compliance Officer’s Decision under Insider Trading Regulations – A Recent Informal Guidance
[Guest post by Suvan Law Advisors, a law firm specializing in regulatory laws. They can be reached at [email protected]. Disclosure: Partners of Suvan Law Advisors contributories to Justice Sodhi Committee Report on Insider Trading.] SEBI has issued a ‘path-breaking’ Informal Guidance dated February 3, 2017 to Kirloskar Chillers Private Limited (“Kirloskar Private”), which has been made public by...
SEBI’s Special Treatment to Public Sector Banks
[Guest post by Abhishek Borgikar, who is a Senior Associate at Dhaval Vussonji Alliance] Violation of Minimum Public Shareholding Norms The former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Mr. U. K. Sinha, while talking about minimum public shareholding in public sector companies said: “Our [SEBI’s] stand as a regulator is that all cos should be treated alike on all matters...
Supreme Court on Independence and Impartiality of Arbitrators
[Guest post by Sneha Bhawnani, Assistant Legal Advisor at Vinod Kothari & Company (Kolkata) and Swatilekha Chakraborty, BBA.LL.B final year student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune.] One of the ways in which efficacy and efficiency of alternate dispute resolution mechanisms can be ascertained is by ensuring the independence and impartiality of the arbitrators. The Supreme Court of India...
SEBI Order Denying Inter-se Promoter Transfer Exemption
[Guest post by Shashank Prabhakar, who is a lawyer with Finsec Law Advisors] The Whole Time Member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently passed an order relating to an application under Regulation 11(5) of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (the Takeover Regulations) for exemption from making an open offer under Regulation 3(2)...
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