[Rajat Jariwal is a partner and Saniya Mirani is an associate at Trilegal] The recent verdicts of the National Green Tribunal (“NGT”), a special tribunal in India dealing only with environmental issues, have brought to fore the money laundering aspect of environmental crimes. India’s principal anti-money laundering statute, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (“PMLA”) was amended in 2013...
Data-Protection in the International Arbitration Regime
[Rishav Ray is a 4th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons) student at the School of Law, Christ (Deemed to be University), Bangalore] One of the fundamental underlying principles of arbitration is ‘confidentiality’. Confidentiality and privacy act as counterparts in protecting the essence of arbitration. While confidentiality refers to the non-disclosure of materials placed during proceedings and the award...
‘Beneficial Owner’ is not a ‘Related Party’ under the IBC
[Tejas A. Jha is an Advocate, practicing in New Delhi] Recently, a major cause of concern has been highlighted by legal experts in regard to financial creditors seeking to invoke pledged shares in the corporate debtor. The concern is that when the said pledged shares are invoked, the financial creditor’s seat in the committee of creditors of the corporate debtor (“CoC”) may be put to challenge on...
The Unavailability of Writ Jurisdiction for Interference with One-Time Settlements
The Supreme Court in State Bank of India v. Arvindra Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (4 November 2022) was concerned with the question whether a High Court, in exercise of its writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution, can intervene in the terms of a one-time settlement (OTS) entered into between a defaulting borrower and a lending bank, for instance by extending the time period for payment...
Call for Papers: Centre for Corporate Research Law Journal
[Announcement on behalf of the Centre for Corporate Law Studies, ILNU] The Centre for Corporate Law Studies, Institute of Law, Nirma University (ILNU) invites submissions for its upcoming Issue of Volume 6 for Centre for Corporate Research Law Journal CRLJ ISSN 2348-**** and e-ISSN applied. About Centre for Corporate Law Studies, ILNU The Centre for Corporate Law Studies is an initiative of the...
How Securities Laws are Enforced in India: Some Facts from a New Data-set of SEBI Orders
As the regulator of one of the world’s largest stock markets by market capitalization, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has several enforcement tools at its disposal. These include imposing monetary penalties, cancelling licences of regulated intermediaries and pursuing criminal proceedings against violators of the laws, regulations and rules administered by SEBI. Moreover, the...
GNLU Advanced Certificate Programme in Capital Markets & Securities Laws
[Announcement on behalf of the GNLU Centre for Business and Public Policy] Established in 2003 with an aim to become a Research-based Teaching university, Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), has always taken proactive initiatives and outlook to provide valuable and mutually beneficial services to the institution of governance, judiciary, economy and civil society, especially weaker sections...
India’s Changing Landscape of ESG Disclosures
[Aanchal Kabra is a 5th year B.A. LLB (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] Sustainable finance has been gaining considerable prominence in corporate India. This conception of finance refers to finance which integrates environmental, social, and governance (‘ESG’) criteria into business and investment decisions, in an effort to increase benefits to...
Double Materiality in Indian ESG Disclosures
[Aanchal Kabra is a 5th year B.A. LLB (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] The concept of ‘materiality’ in financial disclosures was first introduced in the United States Securities Act of 1993. Thereafter, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) has maintained a consistent understanding of what information constitutes...
Delineating Relevant Market for Multisided Platforms: Transaction vs Non-Transaction Platforms
[Harshit Upadhyay and Sanigdh Budhia are third-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] The underlying idea of a majority of platforms in the digital market has been to connect two or more completely different sets of users with differing motivations together, where the platform only acts as an intermediary between them. For instance, Ola and Uber connect...
Call for Submissions: NLS Business Law Review
[Announcement on behalf of the NLS Business Law Review] The Editorial Board of the NLS Business Law Review (NLSBLR) for 2022-23 is inviting original and unpublished submissions for the upcoming print Volume 9(1) of the Journal. About NLSBLR The NLSBLR is a student-run journal at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, India’s premier law school. Our goal is to recognise...
Secondment Taxation and the Northern Operating Systems Case
[Sumanth Sudharshan is a fourth-year B.B.A.,LL.B. student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonepat] Secondments are employment arrangements where an organization sends its employees to another organization to work for them. With more businesses operating globally, secondments allow companies to hire from associated entities for specialized skills or specific technical requirements. Secondments are...
Supreme Court Invokes Article 142 to Permit Withdrawal of CIRP
[Raghav Bhatia is an Advocate, currently practising at the Supreme Court of India & the Delhi High Court. He can be contacted at [email protected]] Recently, the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) in Amit Katyal v. Meera Ahuja permitted the parties to settle the matter and withdraw the CIRP proceedings by invoking article 142 of the Constitution of India (“Constitution”). The...
Supreme Court on Motive as a Precondition for Insider Trading
In a significant decision in Securities and Exchange Board of India v. Abhijit Rajan (19 September 2022), the Supreme Court of India has ruled that the motive on the part of the insider to seek profits is an essential precondition for a successful insider trading charge. Such a directive from the Supreme Court is likely to have implications for insider trading cases currently within the...
GNLU Student Law Review – Call for Papers: Volume IV
[Announcement on behalf of the GNLU Student Law Review] The GNLU Student Law Review (GNLUSLR) is the flagship student journal of the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. The Review is an annually published, student-edited, double blind peer-reviewed, online, open-access Law Review. Volume III of the Law Review can be viewed here. GNLUSLR is hereby calling for papers for its Volume IV...
An Analysis of SEBI’s Regulatory Framework for Bond Trading Platform
[Ganesh BL and Shubhalakshmi Bhattacharya are Associates at a law firm in Mumbai] On 21 July, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued a consultation paper (“Consultation Paper”) proposing a regulatory framework to govern online bond trading platforms (“Bond Platforms”). This comes at a time when India has witnessed a transformation in the number of retail investors...
Supreme Court Holds Tax Authorities to be Secured Creditors: Quandary Revived
[Sikha Bansal is a Partner and Neha Sinha an Executive at Vinod Kothari & Company. They can be reached at [email protected]] Earlier this week, in State Tax Officer v. Rainbow Papers Limited (6 September 2022), the Supreme Court (‘SC’) dealt with the question whether the provisions of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (‘IBC’), especially section 53, overrides section 48 of the...
Supreme Court on Debentureholders’ Rights under Intercreditor Agreements
[Sikha Bansal is a Partner at Vinod Kothari & Company and can be reached at [email protected]] A well-developed corporate bond market not only provides cost-effective funds to the issuer, but it also enables lenders such as banks and other financial institutions to streamline their asset-liability mismatches. As such, there have been considerable efforts to facilitate the development...
SSB Retail India: Analyzing the Need to Safeguard the Scheme of the IBC
[Prakriti is a third-year student at the Hidayatullah National Law University] The enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) was an active step by the legislature to provide a consolidated law for reorganization and insolvency resolution in India. It was an attempt to scrap the earlier existing defaulters’ paradise in India. The IBC has successfully pushed India upwards in the...
Call for Papers: International Virtual Conference on New Facets of Consumer Protection: Challenges and Way Forward
[Announcement on behalf of the Chair for Consumer Law and Practice, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] The Chair for Consumer Law and Practice (CLAP), National Law School of India University, Bengaluru (NLSIU) invites papers for the International Conference on ‘New Facets on Consumer Protection Challenges and the Way Forward.’ About the Conference The international conference...
Supreme Court on Mandatory Pre-Litigation Mediation in Commercial Court Cases
Mediation has gained significant momentum as a means of alternative dispute resolution, both within India and globally. This is particularly so in disputes involving corporate and commercial issues. In this background, an important question arose before the Supreme Court of India on whether pre-litigation mediation is mandatory under section 12A of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015. In Patil...
Time for Indian Courts to Make Way For Emergency Arbitrators?
[Abhisar Vidyarthi is an Associate at AZB & Partners, New Delhi] Over the last decade, emergency arbitration has been increasingly recognised and adopted by most national and international arbitral institutions. In India, emergency arbitration received a significant push on 6 August 2021, when the Supreme Court of India (‘Supreme Court’) rendered a monumental decision in Amazon.com Nv...
Enhanced Minimum Amount of Default under IBC – Retrospective or Prospective?
[Ashwin Bala Someshwerar is an LL.M. Student at TNNLU, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issued a notification on 24 March 2020 (hereafter, ‘the notification’) enhancing the minimum amount of default under the proviso to section 4 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) from one lakh rupees to one crore rupees. The notification does not mention the...
NCLAT Clarifies the Degree of Intervention in a Scheme of Reduction of Capital
[Aastha Bhandari is a fourth-year student at Jindal Global Law School] On 28 July, 2022 the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) passed its judgement in Precious Energy Services Limited v. Regional Director, holding that the negative financials of a company vis-à-vis its net worth and book value per share do not hold any relevance in determining whether the company possesses...
Proposed Merger Control Amendments: Questions and Potential Consequences
[Avinash Kotval and Ishaan Saraswat are penultimate year students at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] The Government of India, through the Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2022 (“2022 Bill”), proposed to bring about multiple changes to Indian competition law. One of the most pertinent changes is the introduction of a new thresholdfor the notification of any combination to the Competition...
Recent Comments