Blog Posts
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Some Thoughts on the Supreme Court’s Daiichi Opinion – The Significance of Paragraph 48
The Supreme Court’s judgment earlier this year on the SEBI Takeover Code is likely to prove extremely influential. A summary of the propositions that emerge from the judgment is available here, and comments on the SAT opinion are available here, and here. Two key issues deserve close scrutiny – the Supreme Court’s analysis of the…
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Further Measures to Boost Infrastructure Financing
In continuation of previous measures, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken additional steps to enable financing in the infrastructure sector. First, the proposed introduction of credit default swaps on corporate bonds (discussed here) covers corporate bonds issued by Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) of rated infrastructure companies “keeping in view the need for development…
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RBI Proposes Credit Default Swaps on Corporate Bonds
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a draft report that proposes the introduction of credit default swaps (CDS) for corporate bonds. Comments are due on the proposal by October 4, 2010. The move to create a market for CDS in India has been delayed for the last few years due to a lack…
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Should Shareholders Pay for Corporate Misconduct?
The U.S. SEC’s settlement last week with Citigroup has revived the debate about the efficacy of payments by way of settlements, fines and penalties by companies as a consequence of breaches of law. Under this settlement, Citigroup is required to pay $75 million for making “misleading statements about the extent of its holdings of assets…
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DEMAT Account for Religious Deities
An interesting issue recently fell for the consideration of the Bombay High Court- whether DEMAT accounts could be held in the name of deities. The Court answered this question in the negative, relying on largely practical and partially moralistic reasons in coming to its conclusions. The decision was pronounced by a Division Bench of the…
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Delhi High Court clarifies Transfer Pricing law
In a fillip to the increasing global ambitions of Indian industries, the Delhi High Court, in Maruti-Suzuki India Ltd. v. ACIT, clarified the application of transfer pricing provisions to the use of foreign trademarks in India. The issue arose out of the Maruti-Suzuki collaboration all of us are well aware of, and was a good…
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“Subject to” Contracts and Agreements “Not Completed”
“The moral of the story is to agree first and start work later.” So observed Lord Clarke recently, in delivering the unanimous judgment of the United Kingdom Supreme Court in RTS Flexible Systems [“RTS”] v. Molkerei Alois Muller Gmbh [“Muller”]. The judgment considers several questions of law that are of significance to long-term commercial contracts,…
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Legal character of an overdraft facility
Earlier this month, a division bench of the Bombay High Court considered an important question regarding the legal character of an overdraft facility offered to a customer. The issue before the Court in Sargam Foods v. State of Maharashtra, was whether the cash credit facility offered by a bank can be attached in recovery proceedings…