[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...
Supreme Court’s Enunciation of Insurance Law in India
[Kamakshi Puri is a final year student at Jindal Global Law School] In a series of cases last year, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud and Justice Hemant Mehta delivered judgments on important aspects of insurance law. Oriental Insurance Company v Mahindra Construction, Life Insurance Corporation of India v Manish Gupta and Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited v...
Position of Third Party Security after Jaypee Infratech
[Ankesh Kumar is a IV Year student at NLIU Bhopal] Anuj Jain v Axis Bank Limited witnessed the Supreme Court ruling on two important matter in Indian insolvency law. As summarized in this post, while the Court set aside the transactions in question as being preferential within the meaning of section 43 of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC), it went on to decide that creditors taking third...
Crypto-Trading’s Tryst with Destiny
[Megha Mittal is an Associate with Vinod Kothari & Co.] Amidst apprehensions of crypto-trading being a highly volatile and risk-concentric venture, the Supreme Court, in its order dated 4 March 2020 observed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a staunch critic of cryptocurrencies, failed to present any empirical evidence substantiating cryptocurrency’s negative impact on the banking and...
IBC Ordinance, 2019: Impleadment of Allottees in a Pending Application
[Pareekshit Bishnoi is an advocate based in Delhi] The President of India on 28 December 2019 promulgated the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Amendment (Ordinance) Act, 2019 (the “Ordinance”) to amend several provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”). Pertinently, section 3 of the Ordinance amended section 7 of the Code by adding three provisos to it. The provisos have limited...
Vacating Directorship in Companies: Examining a Fallacy
[Paras Ahuja is a third year law under-graduate at National law University, Jodhpur] Section 167(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for several grounds that mandate directors of companies to vacate their office. Section 167(1)(a) provides for one such ground, wherein the office of the director shall become vacant if he is disqualified to be a director under section 164 of the Act. Under...
Price Gouging in the Age of Coronavirus: An Analysis of the Regulatory Strategies
[S.S. Shri Lakshmi is a 3rd year student at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur (HNLU)] Amidst all the panic caused by the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the international economy has suffered a beating. Factories across China have closed, bringing exports to a halt and oil stocks have plummeted due to a drastic cut in travel. At the same time however, specific industries have...
Call for Papers: SRDC ADR Magazine from GNLU
[Announcement on behalf of the GNLU Student Research Development Council] About SRDC The Student Research Development Council (‘SRDC’) was established in 2014 as a platform for students to engage in collaborative academic research and to foster discussion around contemporary research questions in law and allied disciplines. Objective of the SRDC ADR Magazine The ADR Student Research Group, under...
Liability of Key Personnel of Companies under the Indian Competition Law Regime
[Nishant Pande is a IV Year, BA LLB (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Personnel at the helm of a company’s decision-making ought to act in furtherance of its best interests. Nevertheless, the actions taken in search of this best interest sometimes bring the company’s practices into the realm of the anti-competitive. To account for such transgressions on behalf of the key...
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