[Tushar Oberoy and Rishabh Sharma are 4th Year, BA.LL.B. (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] In 2017, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had released a circular which practically rendered participatory notes (P-Notes) futile as an instrument for investment in India. The circular stated that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) could not issue overseas derivative...
Antitrust and Aviation: Reviewing the Indian Civil Aviation Sector
[Anik Bhaduri is a III year student and Sudipta Choudhury a II year student, both at NALSAR University of Law] In November last year, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) began an inquiry into allegations of price-fixing in the airlines industry, while in March 2018 the Commission imposed a penalty on three airline carriers for price-fixing. These frequent investigations by the CCI point at...
Seat and Venue: Why Brahmani River is Good Law
[Ankit Singh is a 5th Year student at the School of Law, UPES Dehradun. The author would like to thank Mr. Ajar Rab, Partner, Rab & Rab Associates LLP for his valuable inputs and suggestions] This post is in defense of the criticism levied against the judgment of the Supreme Court in Brahmani River Pellets Limited v. Kamachi Industries Limited in an earlier post available here. It has been...
Digital Market and Zero-Pricing: Is SSNIP Test Applicable?
[Anubhav Sharma and Chirag Jindal are 4th Year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] Introduction Identification of the ‘relevant market’ is one of the most crucial aspects of the antitrust (competition) assessment by the authorities. It is based on two notions: firstly, ‘perfect monopoly’ and ‘perfect competition’ do not exist; and, secondly, firm(s)...
Decoding India’s Regulatory Sandbox Program for Innovations in Financial Technology
[Anirban Roy Choudhury is a banking and finance lawyer, currently pursuing Master of Laws in Finance at the Institute for Law and Finance, Goethe University Frankfurt] Regulatory sandboxes are designed to provide a controlled environment for testing innovative financial or other products and services on a real-time basis, subject to certain regulatory safeguards and supervision. Its primary...
Call for Papers: NLUD Journal of Legal Studies
[Announcement from the NLUD Journal of Legal Studies] The Journal of Legal Studies (JLS) is National Law University Delhi’s annual student edited, peer-reviewed law journal. It seeks to provide a forum for engaging in discussions on varied issues of contemporary importance in domestic and international law and policy. The inaugural issue of the Journal was launched by the Honourable Chief Justice...
Cross-Border Insolvency in India: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal Paves the Way
[Rongeet Poddar is a final year B.A. LLB (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has enabled a Dutch Administrator appointed by the Noord District Court in Holland to participate in the meetings of the Committee of Creditors (CoC) constituted for the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) of Jet...
Expenses Incurred by the Assessee: Penal or Compensatory in Nature?
[Amrit Singh is a fourth-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Institute of Law, Nirma University] Section 37 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 states that any expenditure laid out or expended wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the business or profession shall be allowed for deduction. However, this provision excludes the nature of expenditure mentioned in sections 30 to 36, capital expenditures...
The Indian Supreme Court’s Decision in Pam Developments: Upholding Equal Treatment over Sovereign Privilege
[Aditya Suresh is a third year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at National Law University, Jodhpur and Associate Editor, Indian Journal of Arbitration Law] Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 deals with set-aside proceedings initiated at the recognition stage, after the arbitral proceedings have been completed and an award has been made. However, this provision does not clearly...
Power to Dispense with Meetings of Shareholders and Creditors in a Scheme of Arrangement
[Anirban Chanda is a 4th Year B.A., LL.B. Student at Jindal Global Law School. The author is grateful to Anujay Shrivastava for his inputs] For a very long time, there was an ambiguity regarding the National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) power to dispense with the meetings of shareholders and creditors in an amalgamation or arrangement, especially in a scenario where the ‘majority’ of the...
CCI on Whether Inefficiency or Delay in Service Amount to a Violation under the Competition Act
[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] In its recent decision in National Consumers Co-operative Federation of India v. New Town Electric Supply Company Ltd. and West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Ltd. (NCCFI), the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has declared that...
Participation of Mutual Funds and Insurance Companies under the RBI’s Stressed Assets Framework
[Sachin Santuka is a B.B.A LL.B. candidate at the National Law University Odisha] After the Supreme Court in Dharini Sugars v Union of India struck down the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated 12 February 2018, the RBI on 7 June 2019 introduced a revised framework for the resolution of stressed assets. The provisions of the framework are applicable to Scheduled Commercial Banks, All India...
Key Impact of the Proposed Reforms to the FDI Policy
[Rishabh Sharma is a IV Year BA.LLB. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] On 28 August 2019, the Union Cabinet approved the proposed changes in foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in four sectors, namely, coal mining, digital media, single brand retail trading (SBRT), and contract manufacturing. The approved reforms in the FDI policy are anticipated to make India an...
Comparing Venture Capital Business Forms in India and China
My colleague Lin Lin and I have a working paper titled “Venture Capital In China And India: Does Business Form Matter?”. The abstract is as follows: This paper re-evaluates the importance of business organizational forms with regard to venture capital funds by exploring two major Asian markets, China and India. Evidence suggests that the limited partnership is the leading business form among...
“Group of Companies” Doctrine & Post-Negotiations in the Context of an Arbitration Agreement
[Achyutha GM and Pranika Correa are students at the Gujarat National Law University] The Supreme Court’s decision in Reckitt Benckiser (India) Pvt. Ltd. v. Reynders Label Printing India Private Limited on 1 July 2019 is a bittersweet journey for the doctrine of “group of companies”. The Court’s refusal to implead the foreign subsidiary saw the doctrine to its true spirit. However, a blanket ban...
Construction of Exclusive Jurisdictional Clauses: Are Insolvency Proceedings Covered?
[Abhishek Jamalpur is a 4th year student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies] The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) in Excel Metal Processors Limited v. Benteler Trading International GMBH and Anr confronted an interesting issue. The question was whether an exclusive jurisdiction clause in a commercial contract covers insolvency proceedings initiated under the...
Mergers or Demergers involving Listed Transferor Companies and Unlisted Transferee Companies
[Aishwarya Singh is a lawyer based in Mumbai. The views expressed in the article are personal.] This post discusses the regulatory framework relating to mergers or demergers involving a listed company and an unlisted company, wherein the whole or part of the undertaking, property or liabilities of a listed company, being the transferor company, are transferred to an unlisted company, i.e., the...
Recommendation of Independent Directors in a Takeover: Need for a Relook
[Shreya Goyal is a 4th student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] The SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeover) Regulations, 2011 govern the acquisition of shares in listed companies in India. These Regulations (and their predecessors) have been tested during many corporate takeover battles in India. In the recent takeover episode between L&T...
Parties Can Determine the Fee of the Arbitral Tribunal: Party Autonomy Reaffirmed
[Pareekshit Bishnoi is an advocate practicing in Delhi, India and a graduate of the National Law University Odisha] Arbitration is primarily a party-designed and party-driven process. This is because the arbitration laws across jurisdictions hold party autonomy as a cardinal principle of the process. The parties are allowed to form an arbitral tribunal with members of their choice, determine...
Call for Papers: RMLNLU Law Review Volume X
[Announcement from the RMLNLU Law Review] About the Journal The RMLNLU Law Review is an annual peer-reviewed journal published by the Journal Committee of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow which seeks to provide numerous insights and views into contemporary legal issues and encourage conversation about the same. The RMLNLU Law Review runs parallel to the RMLNLU Law Journal...
A Critique of SEBI’s Proposed Amendment to the Credit Rating Regulatory Framework
[Rongeet Poddar is a final year B.A. LLB (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] The objective of credit rating agencies (CRAs) is to reduce information asymmetry by facilitating investors to form an informed opinion on the credit-worthiness of a debt instrument. The Report of the Committee on Comprehensive Regulation for Credit Rating Agencies released by...
Green Channel in Combination Regulations: Legislative Concerns
[Basu Chandola is a Research Assistant at the Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition (JIRICO)] The Competition Law Review Committee, which was established in 2018 to ensure that competition law is strengthened and re-calibrated to promote best practices, submitted its report in July this year. The Committee has recommended the introduction of a “green channel” mechanism to deal with...
The Murky Case of Aviation Insolvency in India
[Nikhil Gupta is a 5th year BA-LLB (Hons.) student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] The Jet Airways crisis primarily occurred due to the default in the unpaid lease amounts owed to several aircraft lessors. Jet’s fleet consisted of around 119 Boeing planes out of which about 100 were leased from lessor companies such as Avolon, GE Capital Aviation Services and Aercap...
MCA Clarifies “Appointed Date” in Schemes of Arrangement
In schemes of arrangement, whether by way of a merger, demerger or other form of corporate restructuring, the timing of when the transaction takes effect becomes important. It is from such a date that the financial statements of the companies involved will reflect the effect of the transaction. Given that the transaction may be completed anytime during the course of a financial year, parties have...
Videocon Case: The Doctrine of Substantial Consolidation
[Harshit Agrawal is a B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University, Lucknow] Some of the biggest challenges faced by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) in India are to get a fair value for the stressed industries as a going concern keeping in mind the interest of the creditors. The problem becomes more aggravated in the ‘group company’ situation where a...
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