Late on Friday, 22 November 2019, the Securities and Exchange Board of India passed an order in the case involving Karvy Stock Broking Limited (KSBL). The circumstances surrounding the order are atypical. The urgency of the situation is evident in the fact that the SEBI order, passed very late on 22 November, relies upon a “preliminary” report that it received from the National Stock Exchange of...
Can IBC be Invoked against a Financial Service Provider?
[Anirudh Agrawal is a fourth year student of Nalsar University of Law, Hyderabad] Recently, a two-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Apeejay Trust v. Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd instituted insolvency proceedings against one of the leading insurance companies of the country – Aviva Life Insurance. Given the exclusion of ‘financial service providers’ from the...
NBFCs and Other Financial Service Providers Now under IBC
[Ashwin Mathew and Bhushan Shah are with Mansukhlal Hiralal & Co, Mumbai] Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), the corporate insolvency resolution process contained in Part II applies to corporate debtors. A corporate debtor is defined as a “corporate person who owes a debt to any person.” Corporate person is defined to exclude financial service providers. A financial...
Disclosure of Loan Defaults by Listed Entities
Readers may recall the controversy surrounding a circular that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued in August 2017 to all listed companies requiring them to make a public disclosure to the stock exchanges within one working day of defaulting on loans and other financial facilities. In a blog post then, I had discussed the rationale for SEBI’s move. However, the circular came...
SAT Rules on “Materiality” of Disclosures
A somewhat peculiar fact situation arose for consideration of the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in Electrosteels Limited v. Securities and Exchange Board of India (order dated 14 November 2019). Electrosteel Limited (ESL) embarked upon an initial public offering (IPO) in 2010. ESL’s parent is Electrosteel Castings Limited (ECL), a public listed company. Since iron ore is an essential raw...
Social Stock Exchange – A Breakthrough for the Impact Investing Sector
[Aditya Bhayal is a IV year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] In this year’s Budget Presentation, the Finance Minister announced the introduction of the Social Stock Exchange (SSE) in the Indian capital market. Following this, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently set up a panel to provide recommendations on the working and implementation of this concept. In...
Scope of Appeals against SEBI’s Disposal of Investor Complaints
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has established the “SEBI Complaints Redress System” (SCORES) for receiving investor complaints in respect of listed companies, collective investment schemes and other SEBI-regulated entities. The question of whether an appeal lies from SEBI’s disposal of an investor complaint through SCORES came up for consideration before the Securities...
The Foibles of a Databank and Proficiency Test for Independent Directors
There is no gainsaying that board independence has come to assume a pivotal position in corporate governance. Although it continues to receive constant criticism on account its ineffectiveness, no one musters the courage to banish it or even diminish its importance. While the concept of independent directors only gradually received the required attention and seriousness in India, it has been the...
Takeover Offer Price and the Valuation Conundrum
Generally, in a takeover or other form of transaction involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A), there could be broadly two types of disputes. The first type arises if the companies involved have failed to comply with the requisite procedures for undertaking the transaction, which ultimately adversely affects the interests of the shareholders. This would give rise to a cause for the...
Delhi High Court Rules on Disqualification of Directors
In order to address the scores of shell companies in existence, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) introduced a range of measures in the wake of the 2017 demonetization exercise. One of them pertains to the disqualification of directors in companies that have failed to file financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of three financial years, as prescribed under section...
Steering Committee Report on Digital Lending: Issues and Solutions
[Richa Saraf is a Legal Advisor at Vinod Kothari Consultants Pvt. Ltd.] The Department of Economic Affairs has recently released the Report of the Steering Committee on Fintech Related Issues, which discusses the various issues faced by fintech companies. This post seeks to focus on the issues pertaining to online lending, and the recommendations offer by the Steering Committee to address the...
Promoter Cannot Initiate Restructuring Scheme for Insolvent Company
In an earlier post, I had noted the revival of the scheme of arrangement as a restructuring tool for companies that have been taken into liquidation under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). In the cases discussed therein, the adjudicatory authorities sought to encourage the parties to use the scheme to attempt a revival of the company before certifying its demise. Among the leading...
Qualifying test requirements for Independent Directors – a hasty, slipshod & cumbersome requirement
I have written a piece for Moneylife on the new requirements of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for independent directors that mandate existing as well as first-time independent directors to enrol in a databank as also pass certain qualifying test. The Rules, that are spread over several notifications and also an FAQ, come into force from 1st December 2019 and some transition period is also...
Mandatory Consultation as a Recourse to Settle the Tussle between TRAI and the CCI
[Rohan Bhargava and Nishtha Khandelwal are 3rd year students at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University] With the advancement in the technology and the advent of multiple private players in the telecommunication sector, there arose a requirement for a sectoral regulatory body to deal with various issues arising in the market. In India, the telecom sector is governed by the Telecom...
Roadblocks to CCI’s Green Channel
[Jubair Bhati is a corporate lawyer and Mayank Sen a 5th year B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at School of Law, Raffles University, Neemrana (Rajasthan)] The Competition Commission of India (“CCI”) has recently notified amendments to its ‘Procedure in regard to the transaction of business relating to combinations Regulations, 2011’ (the “Combination Regulations”). The amendments to the Combination...
Section 16 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 – A Model Law Approach in India?
[Rahul Saraswat is a 5th year student at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar and Aditi Nandanwar a 5th year at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur] One of the fundamental principles of arbitration is “Kompetenze-Kompetenze”, which empowers the arbitral tribunal to rule upon its jurisdiction and other related issues. Section 16 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act...
Understanding the Scope of Section 238: Overriding Nature of the IBC
[Akhil Kumar is a fifth year BA LLB (Hons.) student and Abhinav Mathur a fourth year BA LLB (Hons.) student, both at NUALS, Kochi] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 was enacted with the view of bringing a complete code of reorganisation and insolvency resolution of corporate debtors in a time bound manner. The Code being at a nascent stage, has seen emerging disputes regarding its...
Call for Papers: NLIU Forum for Research in Arbitration Law
[Announcement on behalf of the NLIU Forum for Research in Arbitration Law] The NLIU Forum for Research in Arbitration Law (NFRAL) now invites submissions for publication on its platform www.nfral.in. About NLIU The National Law Institute University, Bhopal (NLIU) is a leading law school in India, which was established in 1997 by an enactment of the State Legislature of Madhya Pradesh. About NFRAL...
Does the Confidentiality Provision Pose a Stumbling Block in Arbitration?
[Rose Maria Sebi is a third year student and Sandeep Golani a second year student, both at National Law University Odisha] The Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2019 intends to make India a hub for international and domestic arbitration. To achieve this ambitious goal, the legislature has introduced a confidentiality provision under section 42A of the Arbitration and Conciliation...
SEBI’s Informal Guidance Affirms Expansive Nature of Insider Trading Code of Conduct
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (the “PIT Regulations”) have undergone refinement since their enactment. Earlier this year, SEBI introduced changes by way of the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) (Amendment) Regulations, 2018 that came into effect on 1 April 2019. The amendments to the PIT Regulations clarify that the...
Call for Submissions: NLS Business Law Review
[Announcement from the NLS Business Law Review] The Board of Editors of the National Law School Business Law Review is pleased to invite original and unpublished manuscripts for publication in Volume 6 of the Review. About the Journal The NLS Business Law Review (NLSBLR) is an initiative by the National Law School of India University to recognise and foster academic research and scholarship in...
Director Liability: Nexus with Role and not Position
[Pammy Jaiswal is a Partner at Vinod Kothari and Company, and can be reached at [email protected]] While there have been an increasing number of rulings on the liability of directors, the question that mostly came up for examination related to their involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company. The liability of non-executive directors has mostly been scanned to evaluate their...
Determination of Supervisory Jurisdiction by the Indian Supreme Court: Venue in the Driver’s “Seat”?
[Vivek Krishnani is a student at National Law University, Jodhpur] The judgment of the Indian Supreme Court in Brahmani River Pellets Ltd. v. Kamachi Industries Ltd. has invited diverse opinions from legal researchers and law students (which can be found here and here). While it is appreciated that the distinction between domestic and international arbitration has been correctly identified in the...
Section 26(1) of the Competition Act: Chance for Optimum Utilization of the Resources
[Sumit Jain is at the Centre for Competition Law and Economics (CCLE)] Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 allows the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to order an investigation (Director General’s (DG’s) investigation) in case of ‘prima facie’ violations of the Act. The said investigation is under no circumstance bound to influence the final decision of the CCI, and is only ordered to...
Was the Supreme Court’s Approach in Declaring Consumer Disputes as Non-Arbitrable Outcome-Driven?
[Ganesh A Khemka is a lawyer who graduated in 2019 with a B.A. LL.B.(Hons.) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] In 2018 the Supreme Court of India in Emaar MGF Land Ltd v. Aftab Singh considered the question of whether consumer disputes should be referred to arbitration under section 8(1) of the Arbitration Act (“Act”) if there existed a mandatory arbitration clause or...
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