[Abhinav Sankaranarayanan is a III year B.A.L.L.B (Hons.) student at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (WBNUJS)] Background On 28 February 2019, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court in Vidya Drolia v. Durga Trading Corporation revisited the convoluted jurisprudence surrounding the arbitrability of disputes governed by the provisions of the Transfer of Property...
Food Combos: Whether Single-Brand or Multi-Brand Retailing?
[Akhil Kumar is a fourth year BA LLB (Hons.) student and Ayushi Singh a third year BA LLB (Hons.) student at NUALS, Kochi] Single and Multi-Brand Retail Trading According to paragraph 5.2.1. of the Foreign Direct Investment Policy (“Policy”), foreign direct investment (“FDI”) in the manufacturing sector is permitted in India under the automatic route. Further, a manufacturer is permitted to sell...
Consideration of Improved Financial Offer in the Insolvency Resolution Process
[Varsha Gupta is a 4th-year law student at the School of Law, UPES, Dehradun] Introduction After the approval of the resolution plan of JSW Steel in the Bhushan Power & Steel Limited, Tata Steel Limited, one of the resolution applicants challenged the submission of an improved financial offer. In Tata Steel Limited v. Liberty House Group Pte. Ltd., Tata Steel Limited argued that the National...
Jaiprakash Associates Case: A Throwback to Judicial Interference in the Arbitral Process?
[Rishabh Malaviya is an Advocate at Arista Chambers, Bangalore] The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. v. Tehri Hydro Development Corporation India Ltd. (2019 SCC OnLine SC 143) discussed the scope of an arbitral tribunal’s power to award pendente lite interest. While the decision only reiterates the position of law laid down in several previous cases, the approach...
Double Claim by a Creditor
[Richa Saraf is a Legal Advisor at Vinod Kothari & Co.] In Dr. Vishnu Kumar Agarwal v. Piramal Enterprises Ltd. (January 2019), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held that multiple applications for initiation of corporate insolvency resolution process for the very same debt or claim is not permissible. Now, consider a situation where Company A (guarantor) has guaranteed the...
Delhi High Court on Determining Ineligibility of an Arbitrator
[Kishan Gupta is a 4th Year B.A.LLB (Hons.) Student at Dr. RML National Law University, Lucknow] By the introduction of the 2015 amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, the standard of reviewing the independence and impartiality of arbitrators has become more stringent. As it now stands, the Act contains two schedules detailing the grounds: (a) that might give rise to justifiable...
Do the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Amendment Rules, 2019 Narrow the Scope of these Rules?
[Aditi Tomar is a 4th Year B.A.LLB (Hons.) Student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] The Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018 (“Rules”), which were notified on 14 June 2018, aimed to trace the ultimate individual or natural person who holds beneficial interest, i.e., exercises rights and entitlements in the company, by looking through the complex layers of the corporate...
Arbitrability of IP Disputes in India: Lessons from Hong Kong
[Chandni Ghatak is a final year B.A. LL.B (IPR Hons.) student at the National Law University, Jodhpur] India has constantly been making attempts to emerge as a pro-arbitration hub in Asia. While many of these attempts are laudable, a contentious issue that persists is the confusion prevailing over arbitrability of certain kinds of disputes. One such category of disputes is where the subject...
Relief for Distressed under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code
[Utkarsh Jhingan is a fourth year BA LLB (Hons.) student and Rakshit Raj Singh a third year BA LLB (Hons.) student at NUALS, Kochi] India’s corporate sector debt has become a cause for concern as the mounting debts of major companies are at an unsustainable level. In recent years some of the companies have been entangled in a debt trap as their debt payment requirements have grown at a higher...
Call for Submissions: NLUJ Law Review
[Announcement from the NLUJ Law Review] About the Review The NLUJ Law Review is the flagship journal of National Law University, Jodhpur, established with the objective of promoting academic research and fostering debate on contemporary legal issues in India. It is a bi-annual, double-blind student reviewed and edited journal focusing on an inter-disciplinary approach towards legal writing. The...
Amendment to the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018: An Analysis
[Niharika Sharma is a IV Year, B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] In June 2018, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (‘MCA’) issued the Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018 (‘SBO Rules’) and notified section 90 of the Companies Act, 2013 (‘2013 Act’). This was to curb the illicit activities (such as money laundering) being carried...
Amendments to SEBI’s Regulations on Insider Trading Are they Sufficient?
[Keshav Malpani is a B.A. LL.B. (Business Law Hons.) student at the National Law University, Jodhpur] Late last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) came up with a modified set of regulations for insider trading in India by way of the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Amendment Regulations, 2018 (“PITR’18”). The amendment came in pursuance of a report of the TK...
RBI’s Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions
[Falaq Patel is a 4th Year BBA-LLB student at Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad] The Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 (the ‘Act’) is a legislation designed to provide the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’) with regulatory and supervisory powers over all payment systems in India and authorise it to set up a committee of its central board, known as the Board for Regulation of Payment and...
Can a Resolution Professional Initiate Insolvency Resolution on behalf of a Corporate Debtor?
[Ajay Sharma is a 4th Year B.A.LL.B (Hons.) student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] Introduction The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 has been undergoing a crucial jurisprudential evolution. From the very inception of the Code, it is appreciable that the Government and the adjudicating authorities have been seeking to resolve all the issues through amendments or...
Injunction in Investment Arbitration: Union of India v. Khaitan Holdings
[Aman Deep Borthakur is a 4th year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] Introduction After two failed attempts at injuncting different investment arbitration cases, the Union of India recently made another attempt before the Delhi High Court. In Union of India v. Khaitan Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd and Ors.), the Union of India sought an interim injunction against...
Corporate Insolvency and the Creditor-Guarantor Dilemma
[Akash Santosh Loya is a final year student of the 5-year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) course at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies] Introduction There have been a number of decisions dealing with the rights of a creditor vis-à-vis guarantor under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). The adjudicating authorities have provided sufficient clarity on myriad issues ranging from...
Constitutionality of IBC viz-a-viz Operational Creditors: Swiss Ribbons Judgment
[Ashish Rana is an Advocate on Record in the Supreme Court of India] This post is in continuation from my previous post “Binani Judgment: Ray of Hope for Operational Creditors”. Recently, in Swiss Ribbons vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 against various challenges. In this post, I shall be dealing only with...
Assignment in Arbitration: Scope and Issues in India
[Krishan Singhania is Managing Partner and Alok Vajpeyi an Associate at Singhania & Co] Arbitration is a binding voluntary alternative dispute resolution process by a private forum chosen by the parties. It can broadly be divided into three stages, first being the pre-arbitration stage (prior to the time when the dispute arises), second is during the course of arbitration...
Buyback during Pendency of Amalgamation: SEBI Order in the Wipro Case
The SEBI (Buy-back of Securities) Regulations, 2018 states in regulation 24(ii) that a company shall not announce a buy-back when a scheme of amalgamation or compromise or arrangement pursuant to the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 is pending. Such a proscription against buy-back operates because a scheme of amalgamation is a material transaction and could potentially alter the fundamental...
Supreme Court Rules on the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015
[Raghav Kohli is a III year B.A., LL.B. (Hons) student at Gujarat National Law University] On 23 January 2019, a division bench of the Supreme Court of India in Rajasthan Small Industries Corporation Limited v. M/s Ganesh Containers Movers Syndicate set aside an order of the Rajasthan High Court, which had allowed an application for appointment of a substitute arbitrator under sections 11 and 15...
Actions against Independent Directors for Dishonour of Cheques
The question of liability of independent directors is a sensitive one given such directors carry substantial risk without having an influence in the day-to-day management of the company. Hence, the Companies Act, 2013 introduced a specific carve out in section 149(12) by which an independent director cannot be made liable for acts pertaining to the company except in limited circumstances “which...
Expansion of the Rights of Secured Creditors to Recover Debts
[Isha Gupta is a III Year B.A.LLB. (Hons.) student at National Law University, Delhi] The legislature and the judiciary have both adopted a rather pro-creditor approach towards insolvency in the recent past, which is apparent from the enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (“IBC”) and the decision of the Supreme Court in Swiss Ribbons Pvt Ltd v Union of India, wherein the Court upheld...
Direct Overseas Listing: Assessing the Viability of Proposed Reforms
[Suneha Kasal and Swini Khara are III year law students at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Considering the ongoing evolution and internationalization of capital markets across the globe and change in the complexion of Indian companies, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) recently acknowledged that the current regulatory framework on ‘direct overseas listing of equity shares’...
Real Estate Intermediaries: A Missed Opportunity in the Recent ECB Framework?
[Bhavin Gada, Soumya Shanker and Sharan Sanil are with M/s Economic Laws Practice, Advocates and Solicitors. The views of the authors are personal] Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”), through the Foreign Exchange Management (Borrowing and Lending) Regulations, 2018, consolidated all the erstwhile foreign exchange regulations governing the borrowing and lending in foreign currency or...
Amendment to Insider Trading Regulations: An Incentive for Insiders?
[Bhavin Gada, Soumya Shanker and Mehak Gupta are with M/s Economic Laws Practice, Advocates and Solicitors. The views of the authors are personal] On 31 December 2018, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued an amendment to the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015 (“PIT Regulations”). The amendment was pursuant to the recommendations made in the...
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