[Roshni Menon is a an Associate at Samvad Partners, Bangalore] On July 31, 2019, the Parliament passed several amendments to the Companies Act, 2013 .The amendments were brought in to reduce cumbersome compliance, rationalise penalties, and crack the whip on shell companies. They also introduced several revisions to the existing outline of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by inserting penal...
Liability of Personal Guarantors vis a vis their Rights under the IBC: A Legal Conundrum
[Pinak Parikh is an Associate at Singhi & Co, Ahmedabad, and is a B.A L.L.B (Corp Hons) graduate (2019) from the Institute of Law, Nirma University] In December 2019, ArcelorMittal India Private Limited (“AMIPL”) paid over Rs. 42,000 crores to the State Bank of India to complete the acquisition of Essar Steel India Private Limited (“Essar Steel”), in what has been one of the biggest...
The Sun Pharma Orders: NCLT Confounds the Law on Cross-Border Demergers?
[Shinoj Koshy is a partner and Mayank Labh an associate at L&L Partners. The views expressed are personal and do not constitute legal advice. An earlier post on the topic is available here.] On 19 December 2019, the Ahmedabad bench of National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) passed the order in which it rejected an application made by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (“Sun Pharma”) for a...
NCLT Finds Cross-Border Demergers Impermissible under the Companies Act
An important question arose before the National Company Law Tribunal (NLCT), Ahmedabad bench. Are only cross-border mergers and amalgamations permitted under section 234 of the Companies Act, 2013 (the “Act”), or does the provision also encompass cross-border demergers and other similar transactions? The NCLT answered that the scope of section 234 is narrow, and covers only cross-border mergers...
The Seat vs Venue Conundrum in Cases of Unclear Arbitration Clauses: Hardy and Antrix Bad in Law?
[Purvi Kaya is a 5th Year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at O.P. Jindal Global University] The choice of the arbitral seat is fundamental to arbitration. This is because the seat not only determines the lex arbitri, but also the courts that exercise supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitration. Although the distinction between the ‘venue’ and ‘seat’ of arbitration is well recognized in international...
Severability of Arbitration Clauses when the Underlying Agreement is Void Ab Initio
[Ankit Kapoor is a II Year, B.A. L.L.B (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] Earlier last year, in Samyak Projects Private Limited v. Ansal Housing & Construction, a single judge of the Delhi High Court invalidated an arbitration clause as the underlying agreement was void ab initio. This represents a departure from the general rule of severability of...
The Supreme Court Ruling in Pioneer: The Curious Case of Allottees under the IBC
[Saurabh Gupta is a third year student at the National Law School of India University. He is an Editor of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law and Law School Policy Review] The Supreme Court in Pioneer Urban Land and Infrastructure v Union of India [2019 SCC OnLine SC 1005] (“Pioneer”) upheld the constitutional validity of the Insolvency Code (Second Amendment) Act of 2018 (“2018...
Setting Up To Fail: The Amended Significant Beneficial Ownership Rules
[Ayush Kashyap is a IV year law student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur] The Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2019 suffer from a problem relating to the computation of significant beneficial ownership and disclosure requirements thereon. With the compliance deadline for these rules already lapsed, a look at the problem is in order. However, before that, a...
Overlooked Policy Concerns at the Intersection of Technology and Competition Law
[Prateek Surisetti is a graduate of the NALSAR University of Law. The author draws ideas for this post from his longer article “Matrimony.com Ltd v Google: an Indian perspective on a world-wide regulatory phenomenon”, (2020) 41 European Competition Law Review 26] While various commentators have analyzed the rather extensive legal issues arising from the 2018 Competition Commission of India...
Setting Aside Arbitral Awards for Defective Reasoning
[Aman Deep Borthakur is a 5th Year B.A. LL.B. student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] The quality of arbitral awards has been a recurring concern leading to the pursuit for professionalisation of arbitration through the 2019 amendments to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the “Act”). The Supreme Court, in its recent decision in Dyna Technologies v. Crompton...
Impact of Defaults by Stockbrokers: Are Investors the Biggest Losers?
[Shivam Tiwari is a final year law student pursuing B.A. LL.B (Business Law Hons.) at National Law University, Jodhpur. This post was earlier published in the Indian Review of Corporate and Commercial Laws] The Indian financial market has witnessed an increasing number of defaults by stockbrokers in the past few years. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has debarred brokers like...
Decriminalisation of Company Law: A Welcome Change
[Arun Kumar is a 4th-year student of NLIU Bhopal] The Company Law Committee (CLC) in its November 2019 report (CLC Report) to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has recommended amendments to 46 penal provisions in the Companies Act, 2013 (CA, 2013). This is in addition to the 16 offences already decriminalised by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA, 2019). India is making rapid strides...
Section 32A of the IBC (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019: A Step in the Right Direction?
[Khushi Maheshwari is a 3rd year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Apoorva Satapathy a 4th year student at the National Law University of Odisha, Cuttack] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) has been amended thrice since its introduction in 2016. Each amendment has sought to remove bottlenecks in the corporate insolvency process and streamline the...
Some Comments on NCLAT’s Ruling in the Tata-Mistry Case
Last week, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) pronounced its ruling in the Tata-Mistry case. It held that the removal of Mr. Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman by the board of Tata Sons was illegal, and called for his reinstatement to that position. It also decided that consequential actions taken in the interim, including the appointment of a new executive chairman were illegal...
Arbitrability of Fraud in India: The Rashid Raza test for Complex Fraud
[Anirban Chanda is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student and Anujay Shrivastava a 5th Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student, both at the Jindal Global Law School. The authors give special thanks to Dr. V. Niranjan and Mr. Anubhav Khamroi for their inputs.] The term “arbitrability” generally connotes the capability of a dispute or classes of disputes that can be settled by an arbitrator.[1] As far as...
Indian Insolvency Proceeding Secures First Recognition under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code
[Rahul Kanoujia and Tharun Chowdary are 3rd-year law students at Gujarat National Law University] Chapter 15 of the United States (US) Bankruptcy Code provides a framework through which bankruptcy courts recognize foreign insolvency proceedings. In 2005, the US adopted the Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency introduced in 1997 by the UNCITRAL to encourage the treatment of multinational...
Limited Period for Winding up Proceedings during Pendency of a Civil Suit
[Aman Saxena is a practicing advocate at the High Court of Chhattisgarh and a 2018 graduate of the National Law School of India University. The author was one of the counsel retained by the petitioners for this matter] In a judgment delivered by a three-judge bench in Jignesh Shah & Anr. v. Union of India, the Supreme Court laid down the law on the applicability of Article 137 of the...
SEBI’s Denial of Relief to Pledgees in the Karvy Case
We had last month discussed the ex parte ad interim order passed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) wherein the regulator found that Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL) had wrongfully pledged securities belonging to its clients to various lenders in exchange for funds borrowed. Since then, four lenders, (i) Bajaj Finance Limited, (ii) ICICI Bank Limited, (iii) HDFC Bank Limited...
Commitment and Settlement Clause in the Competition Act: The Right Way Ahead?
[Vijayaditya Reddy and Manjri Singh are III year students at NALSAR University of Law] The Government has announced its plan to introduce a ‘commitment and settlement’ clause in the Competition Act, 2002 to allow for a quick resolution of anti-trust cases outside the otherwise lengthy adjudication process. This amendment is likely to take place in the upcoming winter session of Parliament. This...
Front Running and Circumstantial Evidence (Matrimonial Websites Including)
Securities frauds such as insider trading and front running raise insurmountable hurdles for regulators because there is often no evidence, not even a smoking gun. Hence, regulators bear the burden of painstakingly piecing together several bits of circumstantial evidence that, as a whole, might be sufficient to convince a court or tribunal of the elements of a breach of the appropriate...
Amendments to the Portfolio Management Regulations: A Blessing for Retail Investors
[Aditya Bhayal is a 4th Year, B.A.LLB (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] On 20 November 2019, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) introduced certain amendments to the SEBI (Portfolio Management) Regulations, 1993 (the “Regulations”). In doing so, SEBI considered the recommendations of a working group formed for suggesting changes, and comments received from...
Call for Posts: RMLNLU Arbitration Law Blog
[Announcement on behalf of the RMLNLU Arbitration Law Blog] About the Organizer Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University is a law institute located in Lucknow, India. It is regarded as one of the premier law schools in country. Dr. RMLNLU was established in the year 2005, and since then has been providing undergraduate and post-graduate legal education. It has been ranked among the top law...
Call for Submissions: Trade, Law and Development
[Announcement on behalf of Trade, Law and Development] Founded in 2009, the philosophy of Trade, Law and Development has been to generate and sustain a constructive and democratic debate on emergent issues in international economic law and to serve as a forum for the discussion and distribution of ideas. In keeping with these ideals, the Board of Editors is pleased to announce ‘Trade in Services:...
Delhi ITAT Ruling on Liaison Office and Permanent Establishment
[Dibya Prakash Behera is a 5th Year BA. LLB (Corporate Law Hons.) student at National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi] In September this year, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Delhi delivered a landmark judgement in Hitachi High Technologies Ltd v. The Dy. Commissioner of Income Tax. The Tribunal held that the liaison office (LO) of Hitachi High Technologies Singapore Pte Ltd...
Schemes of Arrangement: Setting a Date
[Rudra Shankar is a fifth-year BA LLB (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] The procedure for mergers and demergers of companies in India is governed by sections 230 to 232 of the Companies Act, 2013. Companies are required to approach the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to obtain its sanction to such schemes of arrangement before they can take effect. Section 232(6) of the Act...
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