[Rohit Sharma is a Partner at Mamta Binani & Associates, Mumbai By way of its judgment dated 4 February, 2022 in Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited v. Hitro Energy Solutions Private Limited, the Supreme Court held that an amount given as advance to another person in lieu of availing goods or service shall be construed as an operational debt and the payer of the amount shall come...
Credit Rating Agencies In India: A Critique of SAT’s Ruling Against Care Rating
[Sidharth Pattnaik and Sneha Rath are 4th Year B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) and 3rd Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students respectively at National Law University Odisha] In this post, we focus on the developments around Care Rating Agency’s (CARE) alleged dereliction of its duty to rate Reliance Communications’ (RCom) creditworthiness over a period of four quarters, and the subsequent initiation of inquiry...
SBI v. Mahendra Kumar Jajodia: Resolving Ambiguity in the Personal Guarantor Jurisprudence?
[Dhaval Hemesh Sheth is a second-year student at National Law University, Delhi.] On 27 January 2022, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (‘NCLAT’) in the matter of State Bank of India v. Mahendra Kumar Jajodia (‘Mahendra Kumar case’) ruled that an application filed under section 95(1) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (‘Code’) before the National Company Law Tribunal (‘NCLT’)...
‘Group of Companies’ Doctrine in the Amazon-Future Dispute: Analysis under Indian Law
[Chinmayanand Chivukula is an Advocate based in Hyderabad] The ‘group of companies’ doctrine originated in France in the ICC case of Dow Chemical France v. Isover Saint Gobain. In essence, it requires non-signatories to be bound by an arbitration agreement if such mutual intention can be made out amongst the entities within a group of companies. The purpose of the doctrine is to deconstruct...
Will the Budget Proposal to Reduce Appeals by the Revenue Department Make Tax Litigation More Efficient?
[Surya Prakash BS is a chartered accountant and law graduate working at DAKSH, a non-profit working on transforming the law and justice systems. He has handled finance and tax functions at corporates in his previous roles. Views are personal] The 2022 Union Budget makes one more attempt to reduce the volume (the number of cases) and velocity (frequency of filing) of income tax litigation. The...
Arbitral References under Unstamped Agreements: The Issues with InterContinental v Waterline
[Karan Kamath is an Advocate, Bombay High Court and an LLM candidate at the University of Edinburgh. The author would like thank Mr Rohan Deshpande, Counsel, Bombay High Court, Barrister (unregistered), Inner Temple, and MCIArb, for comments on an earlier draft] In a section 11(6) application, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court recently dealt with the vexed issue of arbitration agreements...
CCI Investigations and Bharti Airtel: Interpretations Galore
[Shreyas Sinha and Krishanu Paul are second-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru] On 14 February 2020, a single judge of the Karnataka High Court stayed an order of the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’) that had directed an investigation by the Director-General under section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 (‘the Act’), into...
ANU Press Call for Book Proposals – ECR Prize
[Announcement on behalf of ANU College of Law] ANU College of Law is delighted to announce the ANU Press ECR Prize in Legal Scholarship, awarded annually to the most outstanding and insightful manuscript submitted to ANU Press in any area of law and legal studies by an early career researcher. The prize winner will receive AU$2,500, have costs covered for publishing an open-access monograph up to...
Can NCLT Direct Distressed Entity for Settlement by Rejecting CIRP Application?
[Deevanshu Jaswani is a 4th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at National Law University, Odisha.] This post attempts to analyse two different judgments to highlight that in IBC, the role of the adjudicating authorities has been clearly specified. According to section 7(5) of the IBC, only two options are provided to the adjudicating authorities while dealing with the petition to initiate Corporate...
Amazon-Future Group: More Reasons Call to Question the Delhi HC Division Bench Ruling
[Velpula Audityaa is an Advocate practicing before the Madras High Court and trial courts in Chennai. The author is thankful to Nirmal Prasad (Advocate, Delhi High Court) for his inputs on this post] In an earlier post, a Delhi High Court division bench’s order dated 5 January 2022 in staying the arbitral proceedings between Amazon and the Future Group before a SIAC tribunal, was rightly...
Regulating the Honchos of the Online World – Big Tech Dominance
[Nityesh Dadhich is a IV year B.A., LL.B(Hons.) student at National Law University Delhi] On 20 January 2022, the U.S. Senate approved the American Innovation and Choice Online Bill. The Bill aims to control the abuse of dominance by ‘covered platforms’ operating over the internet. Section 2(h)(3) of the Bill defines ‘covered platform’ as the online platform having at least fifty million US-based...
Ad-Hoc Arbitrations In India And The Fourth Schedule – The Way Forward
[Ramkishore Karanam is an Advocate practising at the Madras High Court and Akash Santosh Loya is an Advocate practising at the Bombay High Court] Recently, the Supreme Court pulled up a Public Sector Undertaking (“PSU”) for haggling over the arbitral fees of an Arbitral Tribunal consisting of retired judges and expressed its intention to initiate contempt proceedings if the PSU continued to...
DLF Home Developers v. Rajapura Homes: A Critical Analysis
[Anushka Juneja is a 2nd year B.A., LL.B. (hons.) student at Gujarat National Law University] Section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Arbitration Act”) empowers the courts to appoint an arbitrator in case any dispute arises between the parties. For the purpose of the aforementioned section, the power is confined to the examination of the existence of an arbitration agreement as...
Use Cases of a Digital Rupee to the Average Household and Business in India
In her Budget Speech, the Finance Minister announced a proposal to issue a Digital Rupee by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) starting financial year 2022-23. What functions might a Digital Rupee (synonymously, a central bank digital currency or CBDC) issued by the RBI, serve? Identifying the use-cases of a CBDC is critical to the design of the Digital Rupee, and the design of the infrastructure...
App Store: Bridge between Users and Developers or Market Monopoliser?
[Amiya Krishna Upadhyay and Arnab Chakraborty are 4th Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) and B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students respectively at National Law University Odisha] On 31 December, 2021, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed the Director General to probe into the functioning of the App Store and corresponding in-app purchases (IAP) of the Silicon Valley giant. The allegations of the...
Envirad Projects Case: Crystalizing the Post-Perkins Position on Unilateral Arbitrator Appointments
[Sumit Chatterjee is a final year student at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore] On 18 January 2022, a single judge of the Delhi High Court upheld the prohibition on unilateral appointment of arbitrators by parties in Envirad Projects v NTPC Ltd., rejecting the validity of the arbitral clause providing NTPC with the exclusive right to appoint the sole arbitrator. The...
LIBOR Transition: Reassessing the Risks and the Viability of Alternative Reference Rates
[Mukund Arora is a second-year BBA LL.B. (Hons.) student at the Symbiosis Law School, Pune] London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) was a benchmark rate used to price lending transactions among major global banks in the international market. It demonstrated the borrowing costs between banks on unsecured terms. According to the Federal Reserve System, it was utilized to price financial products...
Revisiting India’s Gas Imbalance Regulations
[Krishna Agarwal is a 3rd year BA LLB Hons. student at Gujarat National Law University] The Government of India envisages augmenting its gas-based economy from the existing 6% to 15% by 2030. To achieve this goal, the Government of India made certain structural changes in the gas-market. Gas imbalance is a phenomenon where there exists a difference between the quantity of gas delivered at the...
Parent’s Duty of Care in Relation to a Subsidiary: India and Beyond
[Radhika Ghosh and Yatin Gaur are 3rd year B.A. L.L.B (Hons.) students at Hidayatullah National Law University in Raipur.] The English Supreme Court has yet again in the recent decision of Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell considered the question of the jurisdictional challenges associated with claims being brought in England against a UK domiciled parent for the actions of its foreign subsidiary. The...
Rectifying the Law: CoC Approval for Withdrawal of CIRP Proceedings
[Pradhyuman Singh is a V year student of law from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] On 4 January 2022 in Vinayak Deshpande v. Nexo Industries, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”), Chennai allowed a corporate debtor to settle the matter with the creditor. Accordingly, the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) was directed to allow the application for withdrawing the...
The JPC Report on Personal Data Protection Bill: What is in it for Indian Startups?
[Raj Shekhar is a III-year B.A., LL. B, student at National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi.] On 16 December 2021, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (“JPC”) submitted its long-awaited report to the Indian Parliament after two years of deliberations on the of the Personal Data Protection Bill (“Bill”). While the experts and stakeholders are divided in their opinion about the bill...
Amazon – Future Group: Delhi High Court’s Intrusiveness in Staying Arbitral Proceedings
The arbitral proceedings initiated by Amazon against the Future Group before a Singapore arbitral tribunal has already received considerable judicial attention in the courts in India. In a recent turn of events, a division bench of the Delhi High Court on 5 January 2022 stayed the arbitral proceedings upon the request of the Future Group, and overturned the ruling of a single judge of the same...
Ebix Singapore v. Educomp: Clearing the Muddied Waters
[Aadya Bansal and Navya Saxena are 4th year students at National Law Institute University, Bhopal] On 13 September 2021, the Supreme Court, in its landmark decision in Ebix Singapore Private Ltd. v. Committee of Creditors of Educomp Solutions Ltd., provided a much needed conclusion to a recurring debate under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 by ruling that a resolution plan approved by...
The Relevance of ‘Profit Making’ in Insider Trading: A Paradox
[Aaj Sikri and Kartik Arya are penultimate year BA LLB (Hons) students at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] The insider trading norms in India have evolved with time. Before the implementation of SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (“PIT Regulations”), intention was relevant while deciding whether an insider has engaged in Insider Trading or not. The same was also upheld in...
Revisiting Section 48: Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Award against Non-Signatories
[Darshil Sakhia is a second-year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.] In August 2021, a division bench of the Supreme Court of India, in its landmark decision in Gemini Bay Transcription v. Integrated Sales Service, ruled that a foreign arbitral award can be enforced against non-signatories to the arbitration agreement. The Court rejected the contention of the appellant that their...
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