[The following guest post is contributed by Kruthika Prakash, Advocate, Madras High Court] The Bombay High Court has recently issued an important judgment in HDFC Bank v. DCIT [2016] 67 taxmann.com 42 (Bom.). The High Court has dealt with the issue of applicability of section 14A of the Income Tax Act [hereinafter “the Act”] in respect of the tax-free income earned on investments in case a party...
Recent Papers on Corporate Governance
The following papers on corporate governance in India are available on SSRN. Details, including abstracts, are set out below: 1. Corporate Governance and the Indian Private Equity Model by Afra Asharipour. Private Equity (PE) firms have long invested in Western firms using a leveraged buyout (LBO) model, whereby they acquire a company that they can...
Private Companies Subsidiaries of Overseas Holding Companies — Changes in Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016
[The following guest post is contributed by Siddharth Raja, Founding Partner of Samvad Partners. Views are personal, and comments are welcome] In an earlier blog post, I had examined in detail the issue whether Indian “private” companies that are subsidiaries of foreign or overseas bodies corporate retain their incorporation status for all purposes of the 2013 Companies Act; or...
Delaware Court on the Question of “Control”
We have been debating on this Blog (here, here and here) the concept of “control” in a company in the light of the Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI’s) consultation process that is currently underway. In this context, it would be useful to consider developments from elsewhere that may be instructive. This post considers a recent decision of the Delaware Chancery Court that called...
FDI Reforms in E-Commerce: What Do They Entail?
In a post on this Blog earlier this month, Satyajit Gupta and Saurabh Sharma elaborately discussed the background to the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy in the e-commerce sector. Ambiguities in the policy have not only given rise to uncertainties to players in the sector, but have also resulted in multiple rounds of litigation. As they demonstrate, the dominant e-tailers have gravitated...
SEBI’s Interim Order in the Sharepro Case
Last week, SEBI issued an ex-parte ad-interim order in a case involving Sharepro Services (I) Private Limited, which is a registrar and transfer agent (RTA) for a number of companies. Based on certain complaints, SEBI began investigating into the affairs of Sharepro and found a number of irregularities. For example, dividends which were to be transferred into the Investor Education and Protection...
Equity-Based Crowdfunding as an Early-Stage Financing Alternative: Critique of the Regulatory Proposals in India
[The following guest post is contributed by Shwetha Chandrashekar, who is a Senior Associate in Bangalore, India at GameChanger Law Advisors. She can be contacted on [email protected].] With over 4200 start-ups, India is the fastest growing start-up ecosystem worldwide. It has the third-largest number of start-ups in the technology sector following the US and the UK.[1] However, India is...
Analysis of the options proposed by SEBI for ascertaining “control”
[The following guest post is contributed by Amitabh Robin Singh, who is an Associate at DSK Legal. In this, he highlights the benefits and also offers a critique of SEBI’s recent proposals to define “control”] Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) released a discussion paper to lay down a bright line test for the acquisition of “control” under the SEBI (Substantial...
Choosing between a blurred line and a bright line: SEBI proposes an objective test for “control”
[The following post is contributed by Vinod Kothari of Vinod Kothari & Co. The subject matter of this post is current given that SEBI is in the process of engaging in a public consultation based on its proposals. We are likely to carry a series of posts on this issue so as to capture a varied set of views and approaches.] If the ruling of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in...
SEBI’s Discretion (or Lack Thereof) in Imposing Penalty – A Twist in the Tale
[The following guest post is contributed by Vaneesa Agrawal, Securities Lawyer and former Legal Officer, SEBI. She can be reached at [email protected]. A previous post on this Blog relating to the subject matter can be found here.] Background There has been much furore in the corporate world due to the Supreme Court’s order in SEBI v. Roofit Industries Limited, [(2015 (12) SCALE 642...
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