In corporate governance parlance, auditors are considered to be key “gatekeepers”. However, governance failures both in India and around the world have pointed fingers towards the role of auditors. This has led to a series of reforms that impose greater stringency on auditors and the audit process. For example, the audit provisions in the Companies Act, 2013 (the “Act”) have been designed...
Delhi High Court Allows E-commerce Platforms to Sell Products of Direct Selling Entities
[Kajal Kashyap is a 4th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons) student at NALSAR University of Law] In Amazon Sellers Services Pvt. Ltd. v. Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., a division bench of the Delhi High Court overruled an earlier judgment passed in 2019 by a single judge of the same court, thereby allowing e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart to sell products of Amway and other direct selling...
India’s Approach to Liability of Hotels for Loss of Guest Property
[Pareekshit Bishnoi is an advocate based in Delhi] What are the legal consequences when a person visits a hotel and gives their car for valet parking, which is later reported as lost or damaged? In such cases of loss or damage from infra hospitium (meaning “within the hotel”), a question often arises as to the nature of liability of such hotel-owner or innkeeper. To determine the nature of...
The Expanding Scope of Commercial Wisdom in the IBC: Numbing all Checks and Balances?
[Kartikey Sanjeev Bhalotia and Arshit Kapoor are 2nd year students at the National Law University Odisha] While overruling a decision of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the Supreme Court in Maharashtra Seamless Limited v. Padmanabhan Venkatesh (decided on 22 January 2020) accepted the decision of the committee of creditors (CoC) approving the appellant’s resolution plan which...
Retrospective Termination of Sole Arbitrator: A Move Uncalled For?
[Prince Todi is a III year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, Chattisgarh] On 20 January 2020, the Delhi High Court in Prodattur Cable TV Digi Services v. Siti Cable Network Limited held that the unilateral appointment of a sole arbitrator by an authority interested in the outcome of the dispute is impermissible. While the same principle has been laid down...
SEBI Portfolio Management Regulations, 2020: Towards an Investor Friendly Regime
[Anukrati Mishra is a final year B.A. LLB (Business Law Hons) student at Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad] On 16 January 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) undertook the first overhaul of the regulations governing portfolio management services (PMS) in over two decades by issuing the SEBI (Portfolio Managers) Regulations, 2020. The new regulations have been...
Takeover of Unlisted Companies: A New Route
Squeeze out of minority shareholders of companies has been a controversial area. As a co-author and I had discussed, there are a number of methods by which squeeze outs can be effected in Indian companies. By way of a recent set of notification and rule-making efforts, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has just added another method that would be applicable to unlisted companies. Among the...
Budget 2020: What’s there for the Real Estate Sector?
[Akash Kumar Prasad is a fourth-year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The Union Budget 2020-21 was presented on February 1, 2020 by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Amidst sharp decline in the economy, the Union Budget was awaited with great expectations to foster growth in the real estate sector. However, with no major announcement for catalysing the same, the Budget fell...
India’s Insider Trading Regime: How Connected Are You?
[Prateek Bhattacharya is an Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean (Scholarships), Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University.] ‘Insider trading’ refers to the illegal buying or selling of a security in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust. Such sale of a share or security is carried out on the basis of material non-public information (the term used in the United...
Whether a Section 11 Application can be Dismissed on the Grounds of Limitation?
[Piyush Rathi is a 4th Year B.A. L.L.B student at NALSAR University of Law] The Supreme Court in Uttarakhand Purv Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited v Northern Coal Field Limited (27 November 2019) obtained a chance to expand on the jurisprudence relating to the approach of ‘minimal intervention of courts in arbitral process‘ taken by the legislature. The issue faced by the Supreme Court was...
Recent Comments