Category: Uncategorized
-
A Much Needed Reading Down of Dharmendra Textiles
An earlier post highlighted the implications of the decision of the Supreme Court in Dharmendra Textiles (306 ITR) on penalty proceedings under the revenue laws, including the Income Tax Act. The Court there overruled its earlier decision in Dilip Shroff, and concluded that there is no requirement of mens rea in the case of penalty…
-
Reputational Sanctions in Corporate Governance
Who Shall Govern? CEO/Board Power, Demographic Similarity, and New Director Selection The Satyam episode has led to debates about inadequacies in corporate governance norms in India. One of the issues currently being discussed pertains to the level of investor activism in the Indian markets. Compared to the developed economies such as the U.S. which has…
-
SEC Proposals to Curb Short Selling
Who Shall Govern? CEO/Board Power, Demographic Similarity, and New Director Selection The U.S. SEC earlier this week announced a set of proposals to curb short selling. One the one hand, it is argued by proponents of short selling (primarily institutional investors such as hedge funds) that such activity helps contribute to market efficiency. On the…
-
Staid Capital Markets
Primary capital market activity in the form of public offerings and rights offerings is virtually down to a trickle. While that is not at all surprising considering the somber market conditions, some numbers have been recently reported in the Business Standard as follows: Fund mobilisation through initial public offerings (IPOs) touched a six-year low in…
-
AAR doubts Ishikawajima – Territorial Nexus and Royalties
An earlier post discussed the taxability of royalties paid to non-residents for technical services. There has been substantial conflict in decisions on this point. Under Section 9(1)(vi) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, royalties payable by non-residents in respect of a right, property or service utilized for the purpose of making or earning any income…
-
DO CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES FALL UNDER THE AMBIT OF THE SECURITIZATION ACT?
In an earlier post, it was reported that the Supreme Court had excluded cooperative societies from the purview of the RDB Act (Debt Recovery Tribunals). Recently, similar questions have been raised about the scope of the Securitization Act, 2002, and whether it covers co-operative societies. Unlike the RDB Act, which did not specifically include Co-operative…
-
Demystifying concepts and terms used in agreements
My colleague, Daksh Trivedi has recently written an interesting article in The Mint, where he has discussed the various legal concepts/ terms used in shareholders and share purchase agreements. He begins with: Typical documents used for capturing terms of equity investments, that is, share-purchase agreements or shareholders’ agreements, are now complex and ridden with industry…
-
Globalisation and the Indian Legal Sector
In what may perhaps be the first academic study in the field, Professor Jayanth Krishnan examines the issues that revolve around the opening up of the Indian legal sector to foreign law firms. In his paper Globetrotting Law Firms, which is the product of empirical study through fieldwork and interviews, Professor Krishnan comprehensively discusses various…
-
Independent Directors and Family-Owned Companies
I came across an interesting article Guests at the Table?: Independent Directors in Family-Influenced Public Companies by Professor Deborah DeMott. Although the article focuses primarily on U.S. law (where family-owned companies are more the exception than the rule), it does have a significant bearing on the Indian situation as well. In India, a large number…
