[Mani Gupta and Shelja Pradhan are lawyers at Sarthak Advocates & Solicitors, New Delhi] In Standard Retail Private Limited v. G.S. Global Corp (8 April 2020), the High Court of Bombay has pronounced possibly one of the first orders interpreting the impact of force majeure clauses on parties’ contractual obligation due to COVID-19. In this case, the petitioners (who were steel importers) had...
Call for Papers: NALSAR Student Law Review
[Announcement on behalf of the NALSAR Student Law Review] The NALSAR Student Law Review (NLSR) is now accepting submissions for its upcoming Volume XV. The NSLR is an annual, student-edited, peer-reviewed law journal that is the flagship publication of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India. It is indexed on Hein Online and SCC Online. The NSLR is committed to encouraging and enhancing the...
Blueprint of a Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Law for India
[Shehnaz Ahmed is a Senior Resident Fellow and Krittika Chavaly a Project Fellow for Fintech, both at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, a New Delhi based independent think-tank. [This post was originally published on the Oxford Business Law Blog, and can be accessed here] As technological innovation disrupts the financial sector, regulators across the world continue to explore and experiment with...
Contractual Relief under the Disaster Management Act, 2005?
[Bhavin Gada is a Partner at Economic Laws Practice, Advocates and Solicitors (“ELP”), and Manendra Singh is a Senior Associate at ELP] The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DMA) was enacted by the Parliament of India to provide for the effective management of disasters and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. DMA, in a nutshell, empowers the Central Government, State Governments...
OECD’s Unified Approach Proposal for Taxation in the Digital Economy
[Dibya Prakash Behera is a 5th Year BA. LLB (Corporate Law Hons.) student at National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi] The Organisation for Economic Co-operation (“OECD”) on 9 October 2019 released its Secretariat Proposal for a “Unified Approach” under Pillar One (“Proposal”) for public consultation. The Proposal, inter alia, introduces the concept of a nexus largely based on...
Whether an Order of the Chief Justice under Section 11 of the Arbitration Act is Subject to Review
[Pinak Parikh is an Associate at Singhi & Co, Ahmedabad, and a B.A L.L.B (Corp Hons) graduate (2019) from the Institute of Law, Nirma University] On 18 February 2020, a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court in Antikeros Shipping Corporation v. Adani Enterprises Limited observed that the order passed by the Chief Justice of India or Chief Justice of the High Court under section 11 of the...
A Stamp Paper – What Good is it Beyond Six Months?
[Shivani Vij is an advocate practicing before the Supreme Court of India, High Court of Delhi and various statutory and arbitral tribunals] In India, instruments creating title or any other interest in property, including commercial documents, are subject to payment of a fiscal duty to the Government in the form of ‘stamp duty’. Although the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, a central legislation, governs...
Yes Bank Case: Scope of ‘Encumbrance’ over Shares
[Arushi Gupta is a IV year student at National Law University Odisha] With the recent order of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) imposing a fine on the promoter entities of YES Bank, the much contentious issue of the definition of encumbrance has again taken the centre stage. This post aims to analyse the recent order of SEBI in light of the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of...
Rajasthan High Court on Prior-period Claims in Resolution Plans
[Megha Mittal and Shreya Jain are Associates at Vinod Kothari & Co.] A resolution plan under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Cody, 2016 is the revival route for a corporate debtor, free of its past liabilities and dues, paid in accordance with the approved plan. Having said so, it might be noted that resolution plans assume the status of a statutory binding contract once approved by the...
Covid-19: Return of the MAC
[Sridutt Mishra is a 4th year student and Apoorva Upadhyay a 3rd year student, both at the National Law University Odisha] The fear over the spread of Covid-19 has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with initial estimates suggesting an even worse impact than the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and the Great Depression. Central banks and securities regulators across countries such as India, the...
Supreme Court on Jurisdiction of the Gujarat Arbitration Tribunal to Grant Interim Injunctions
[Abhijeet Shrivastava is a second year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student and Anujay Shrivastava a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) candidate, both at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. The authors are grateful to Dr. V. Niranjan for his valuable inputs] Recently, a division bench of the Supreme Court in State of Gujarat v. Amber Builders (8 January 2020) has clarified that the Gujarat Public Works Contract Disputes...
Call for Papers: The Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law
[Announcement on behalf of the Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law] The Indian Journal of Intellectual Property Law (IJIPL) is the flagship intellectual property law journal of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. IJIPL is India’s first student run journal that is wholly devoted to the study of intellectual property law. Published annually, it is the combined endeavour of NALSAR...
MCA Allows EGMs to be Conducted Virtually
[Aditi Nagpal is a 4th year BALLB student at Jindal Global Law School] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) released a clarification through its General Circular 14/2020 dated 8 April 2020 which allows for extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) of companies to be conducted virtually. The Circular provides a welcome relief in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and follows naturally in line...
Supreme Court Reopens the Limitation Period for Enforcement of Foreign Awards
[Smriti Shukla and Yash Raj are third year students of the National University of Study and Research in Law (NUSRL), Ranchi] In the recent judgment of the Supreme Court in Bank of Baroda v. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (17 March 2020), the question concerned the limitation period for the execution of the foreign decrees under section 44A of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC) in India. In an attempt to...
Supreme Court Rules on Limitation Period for Execution of Foreign Decrees in India
[Ankit Tripathi is a practicing advocate before the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court] In its judgement dated 17 March 2020, the Supreme Court in Bank of Baroda v. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd ruled on the limitation period applicable to the execution of foreign decrees in India, after it recorded contrasting views of the different state High Courts on the issue. It held that the limitation period...
‘Control’ under the Competition Law Regime: Is the Ambiguity Finally Settled?
[Abhishek Tripathy is a IV year student and Akshita Totla a III year student, both at the Institute of Law, Nirma University] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs introduced the Draft Competition (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in February 2020. The Bill was a result of efforts of the Competition Law Review Committee, which was established with the objective of suggesting amendments to the Competition Act...
Statutory Limitation on Claims under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act – Part II
Should the Limitation Act be applicable? The MSMED Act is aimed at the expeditious resolution of purely commercial disputes where the terms of engagement are decided by private parties and government intervention is intended to secure an efficacious remedy for timely payment. Consequently, the MSMED Act should not be interpreted in a manner that provides remedies that have specifically been...
Statutory Limitation on Claims under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act – Part I
[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...
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