[Shinoj Koshy and Purvi Khanna are at L&L Partners, Delhi] One of the foremost requirements for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) industry is the availability of credit and shorter working capital cycles. The working capital cycle of an MSME is the time taken to convert its receivables into cash, which is essential to run their small-scale operations. The Interest on Delayed...
Covid-19 Crisis: Analyzing the Reforms to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Laws
[Karan Sahi is a corporate lawyer and company secretary by profession, and Pranay Bhattacharya is a 3rd year BA LLB (Hons.) student at the Maharashtra National Law University, Aurangabad] The changing market dynamics from the coronavirus (“Covid-19”) has impacted almost every sector. The pandemic has not only caused global business disruption by halting the international trade, it has also...
6th GNLU Moot on Securities and Investment Law 2020
[Announcement from the organisers of the GNLU Moot on Securities and Investment Law] About the Organiser Gujarat National Law University is a premier university of law situated in Gandhinagar, Gujarat seeking to promote research-based education among its students by way of providing excellent education, and opportunities in various co-curricular and extra-curricular activities for holistic growth...
Supreme Court on Enlarged Scope of Leniency for Mistakes in Filing Income Tax Returns
[Amar Tandon is a IV year student and Mansi Mishra a III year student at the National Law Institute University, Bhopal] In Rajasthan State Electricity Board v. Dy. Commissioner of Income Tax (decided on 19 March 2020), the Supreme Court set a precedent for expanding the scope of leniency under section 143(1-A) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. In this post, the authors seek to discuss the details of...
Termination of Worker For ‘Loss of Confidence’ Does Not Amount To Retrenchment
[Madhusudan Bose and Nayantara Chauhan are Advocates at PRA Law Offices, Delhi] Indian law grants strong protection to certain types of employees (statutorily referred to as ‘workmen’, but for convenience herein as ‘workers’) against termination of their employment by employers (or ‘retrenchment’). A worker is entitled to retrenchment compensation at the rate of 15 days average pay for every year...
Buyers’ Cartels in Indian Competition Law: Is it Time?
[Adyasha Samal is a student at the Hidayatullah National Law University] On 20 February 2020, the Ministry of Corporate affairs sought public comments on the Competition (Amendment) Bill 2020, which proposes sweeping substantive and procedural changes to the Competition Act 2002 (the “Act”). Among these is the significant inclusion of buyers’ cartels within the definition of cartels in section...
Is the Indian Arbitration Regime suited for The IBA Rules On Evidence? – Part II
[Muskan Arora is a III year B.A. LL.B (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] In the first part of this post, I critique the presence of an undefined good faith standard in imposing sanctions upon the parties in the International Bar Association Rules on the Taking of Evidence (‘IBA Rules’) pursuant to article 9(7) and how the same is particularly...
Is the Indian Arbitration Regime Suited for the IBA Rules On Evidence? – Part I
[Muskan Arora is a III year B.A. LL.B (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] The 2010 iteration of the International Bar Association Rules on the Taking of Evidence (‘IBA Rules’) institutes a commendable effort at harmonizing standards on the procedure for taking of evidence in the international arbitration regime. After the first set of rules...
National Action Plan on Business and Human rights: A Critique
[Vedangini Bisht is a third year student at National Law University Delhi] In November 2018, at the Business and Human Rights Forum in Geneva, India formally announced that it would come up with a National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights. This makes India one of 45 countries to have a NAP on business and human rights or those that are in the process of finalising a NAP. The aim is...
Can Covid-19 be Classified as a Valid Force Majeure Event?
[Anirudh Agrawal and Rishabh Sharma are 4th year BA.LL.B. (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Since the widespread reporting of cases of the coronavirus, Covid-19, around the world, several countries have imposed travel bans, citizens have been quarantined and the infected persons have been isolated, all with a view to stop the proliferation of the virus. Amidst such an...
Supreme Court Reopens the Issue of “Venue” versus “Seat”
[Shreesh Chadha is a final year student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] The dichotomy between the “venue or place of arbitration” and “seat of arbitration” has been the subject matter of a plethora of judgements by the Supreme Court. This issue was recently reopened before the Supreme Court, and has resulted in contrary positions of law, warranting serious reconsideration. A full bench of...
The (Active) Involvement of Directors during Insolvency Proceedings
[Kushagra Srivastava is a 3rd year B.A.L.L.B. (Hons.) student at National Law Institute University, Bhopal] Section 17(1)(a) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) vests the management of the affairs of a corporate debtor in the interim resolution professional (“IRP”) on the insolvency commencement date in accordance with section 16 of the Code. This implies the imposition of...
Enforceability of Arbitral Awards in India: “Absence of” Territorial Jurisdiction Creates New Obstacles
[Dhruva Gandhi is an Advocate at the Bombay High Court] Once a claimant has an arbitral award in its favour, a question arises as to which court can enforce the award and help recover its dues. Ordinarily, a court that has jurisdiction over the award-debtor or its assets would be the appropriate forum. In India, though, there are now conflicting judicial decisions on this proposition, only adding...
Settlements and Commitments in the Indian Competition Regime: Construing Practicality
[Ashu Bhargav is a student at the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi and Yavipriya Gupta at the Hidayatullah National Law University] The Indian competition law regime has witnessed significant developments in the past decade, as a consequence of which the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has proposed a set of amendments to the existing Competition Act 2002 (the Act), in its Draft Competition...
The BGS Case: Cleared The Air Or Muddied The Settling Waters?
[Prince Todi is a 3rd year student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur and Shruti Khanijow an Advocate at the Supreme Court of India] In the past decade, there has been an exponential growth of arbitration in India. The fundamentals of party autonomy, neutrality and speedy disposal of disputes have not only attracted private parties but also states to prefer arbitration over...
Covid 19: Consequences on Contractual Obligations
[Meenal Maheshwari is the lead transactional counsel at Essar Group] With the pandemic that has subsumed the world, a common question that corporates are dealing with is the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on already contracted obligations. The most relevant question raise is: at what point does Covid-19 pandemic allow a party to delay performance, not perform, renegotiate the existing terms...
SEBI’s Proposed Framework for Corporate Bonds and Debenture Trustees
[Rashmi Birmole is a III year B.A., LL.B. student at ILS Law College, Pune] Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (“IL&FS”), a non-banking finance company (“NBFC”) belonging to a sub-category of systemically important non-deposit accepting core investment companies was, at the time, engaged in financing and developing infrastructure projects. In June 2018, the collapse of IL&FS...
Examining the Legal Nature of Commercial Papers: Securities or Money Market Instruments?
[Priyanka Sunjay is an associate at L&L Partners Law Offices. The author thanks Jay Parikh and Varun Kumar for their inputs] On 22 October 2019, the Securities Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued a circular titled ‘Framework for Listing of Commercial Paper’ (“SEBI Circular”) in order to enable listing and trading of commercial papers on stock exchanges. This poses certain important...
IBC Threshold Raised: Analysis and Implications
[Megha Mittal and Shreya Jain are Associates at Vinod Kothari & Co.] The seemingly low threshold of Rs. 1,00,000 for the initiation of insolvency proceedings has been a persistent concern given the possibility of its exploitation by frivolous actions. While rumours about raising the threshold limit for initiating insolvency process have long been swirling, the recent outbreak of Covid-19 came...
Extraterritorial Compliance with Corporate Governance Norms
[Shubham Gupta is a 4th law student at Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad] The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has elucidated its position with the respect to the extra-territorial application of its corporate governance norms. In a recent informal guidance in the matter of KCP Limited, SEBI interpreted regulation 24(1) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure...
Leniency Plus: A Potential Minus To The Indian Competition Framework?
[Vedantha Sai is a 4th year student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) Kochi, India] Acting upon the Report of the Competition Law Review Committee, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 20 February 2020 introduced the Draft Competition (Amendment) Bill with the object of filling several gaps and revamping the competition law framework in India. It incorporates several...
Vivad se Vishwas Scheme: Will the Tax Payer Express Trust?
[Venkat Maithreya is a Counsel at the Telangana High Court] The Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme (now the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020) (the “Scheme”) was introduced by the Finance Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman, in her Budget speech for the year 2020-21 in the Lok Sabha on 1 February 2020. The Scheme seems to be an equivalent of the Indirect Tax Sabka Vishwas (Legacy Dispute Resolution) Scheme...
Liability of Issuers for Misleading Advertisement in a Public Issue of Securities
[Neha Sinha is a 3rd Year B.A. LL.B. student at National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi] In an order dated February 26, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposed penalty on Muthootu Mini Financiers Ltd. (MMFL) in a matter relating to misleading advertisement made to the public at large regarding the issue of debt securities. The matter was decided by...
Delhi High Court on Limitation Period under Section 8, Arbitration And Conciliation Act
[Piyush Agrawal and Radhika Agrawal are 3rd year students at the Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur] Whether or not the limitation period is applicable to section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Arbitration Act”) is an unsettled principle. The peculiarity of the statute of limitation being enforceable in courts, but not in matters of arbitration, has long been debated...
Competition Law and the Deep Discounting Conundrum
[Akanshha Agrawal is a III year student at the National Law University, Delhi An earlier version of this post was published by the Kluwer Competition Law Blog] The changing market dynamics in the digital era have raised several concerns with competition regulators across the world, triggering a host of studies for a better understanding the issue. In doing its part, the Competition Commission of...
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