[Pranav Tolani is associated with a corporate law firm in Mumbai and can be reached at [email protected]] The first post in this series is available here] The Indian Position While India has active cryptocurrency traders as well as cryptocurrency exchanges, there has been no serious development on the regulatory front, except, of course, the repeated warnings by Reserve Bank of India and the...
The Curious Case of Cryptocurrencies: Part I
[Pranav Tolani is associated with a corporate law firm in Mumbai and can be reached [email protected]] Cryptocurrencies have made waves in financial markets around the globe. According to leading cryptocurrency exchanges, the August 2018 global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is somewhere short of USD 400 billion – less than half of what it was in December 2017 (on the back of...
The Continuing Saga of Homebuyers under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
[Karan Sahi is a lawyer and company secretary. He can be contacted at [email protected]] Introduction The recent slump in the real estate industry culminated in a grim situation where several major builders have been unable to complete their housing projects and hand over possession to their customers, leaving them in the lurch. As is the usual practice, many of these customers have taken...
Charter Hire Agreements: Abuse of Dominance in a Monopsonist Procurer Market
[B.V.S. Aditya Santosh is a 4thYear BBA.L.L.B. (Hons.) Student at ICFAI Law School, Dehradun] In Indian National Shipowners’ Association Vs. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (order dated 12 June 2018), the Competition Commission of India (CCI) dealt with abuse of dominant position of an enterprise in a monopsonist procurer market (buyer’s monopoly) by virtue of unfair charter...
NCLT Approves Amalgamation of LLP with Company: Did the Legislature Intend This?
[Ritika Bharti and Siddharth Subramanya Raj Urs are 4th year B.B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) students at School of Law, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru] Giving a new dimension to corporate restructuring, the Chennai Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (“Tribunal”), in its first of a kind order dated 11 June 2018, laid down a fresh interpretation to the provisions pertaining to the...
Corporate Insolvency Proceedings: Can Interest be Claimed as a Part of Debt?
[Lyssa Maria Brito is a 4thyear B.B.A.L.L.B. (Hons.) student at School of Law Christ (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru] Introduction Earlier, in section 433(e) of the Companies Act, 1956, there was no distinction provided between a financial and an operational debt. Section 433(e) only provided that a company may be wound up by the court if it is unable to pay its debts. Therefore, the issue...
Amending the Commercial Courts Act: Quantity over Quality?
[Anhad S. Miglani is a Chandigarh based advocate and Sagun Poudyal a Mumbai based commercial lawyer. Both are graduates of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] In May 2018, an Ordinance was promulgated to amend the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 (the “Act”). The Parliament, in its monsoon session, has passed a...
Call for Papers: Indian Arbitration Law Review
[Announcement from the Indian Arbitration Law Review] The National Law Institute University, Bhopal (NLIU) is pleased to announce the launch of the Indian Arbitration Law Review (“Journal”), an annual peer-reviewed journal devoted to arbitration. The Journal, supported by L&L Partners Law Offices, is set to be released in February 2019 during the 4th NLIU—Justice R.K. Tankha Memorial...
NLS Business Law Review: Call for Submissions – Volume 5
[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 5 of the Review. About the Journal The NLS Business Law Review is an initiative by the National Law School of India University to recognise and foster academic research and scholarship in corporate...
Interests of Homebuyers in Insolvency: Pre- and post-Ordinance
[Pulkit Khare is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at The National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi] Homebuyers knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution on grounds that the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) ignored the interests of vital stakeholders in building projects floated by Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL) under the...
Limiting the Application of Moratorium to Personal Guarantors
[Karan Sangani is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad] One of the contentious issues under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (“the Code”)relates to the applicability of the moratorium to the personal guarantors of the corporate debtors under section 14 of the Code. This was resolved by the Supreme Court recently in State Bank of India v. V...
Supreme Court Reiterates Position: I&B Code, 2016 Prevails Over the Income Tax Act, 1961
[Siddharth Kumar is a 3rdyear B.B.A. LL.B.(Hons.) student at Vivekananda Law School, Delhi] The Supreme Court of India, by its order dated 10 August 2018 in Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax v. Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd. has held that the provisions of the moratorium stipulated under section 14 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“ Code”) would override anything inconsistent contained in...
The Walmart-Flipkart Deal: A New Era For The Indian E-Commerce Industry
[Hitakshi Mahendru is a 5th Year Law Student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] Introduction In its order dated 8 August 2018, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the 77% acquisition of outstanding shares of Flipkart Private Limited (Flipkart) by Walmart International Holdings Inc (Walmart) and stated that it is not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India...
Promoter’s Stake in Private Banks and Kotak Mahindra Bank’s Preference Share Issue
[Anirudh Goyal and Vishal Hablani are 4thand 3rdYear B.A.L.L.B. (Hons.) students respectively at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata] The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) on 14 August 2018 took the view that the recent issue of preference shares by Kotak Mahindra Bank to dilute the stake of Uday Kotak, the promoter of bank, does not meet the regulatory norms. The bank on 2...
Prospects of Regulation of Initial Coin Offerings by SEBI
[Aishwarya Singh is a 5th year law student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, by way of a circular, ring-fenced banks from dealing with cryptocurrencies. However, the status of cryptocurrencies in India is far from decided. The RBI circular has been recently challenged in the Supreme Court. On the other hand, the Government had also constituted an Inter...
Cryptocurrency on the Path to Legalisation?
[Vineet Ojha is a Manager at Vinod Kothari Consultants Pvt Ltd] From conservative investors to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, cryptocurrency has been the hot button issue. In the tech world, a common phrase is “that’s so crazy it just might work”, and hence, an open-source, unregulated, P2P currency has been thriving for the better part of the last decade. The Indian regulators have not taken...
Circumstances where Resolution Process can be Declared Void after Initiation
[Shreya Routh is an Executive at Vinod Kothari & Company] Gains through unjust fraud are never secured. The same goes for a company against which a process of corporate insolvency has been initiated. If the sole intent for initiation of a case is to defraud the creditors, there can be no possibility of revival of the company. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) comes with...
IBBI Expects to Usher in Effective Decision-Making at Creditors’ Committee Meetings
[Vinod Kothari is an insolvency practitioner at Vinod Kothari & Co and can be reached at [email protected]] The circular dated 10 August 2018 issued by the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) makes for interesting reading. While it is lamenting the fact that the hard timeline-bound regime of the insolvency process will lead to unintended corporate mortality if the bank...
Improperly Stamped Arbitral Awards: When Can Courts Interfere?
[Athira Sankar is a 5th year B.A. LL.B student at National Law University, Jodhpur] Introduction The effect of non-payment of stamp duty at the time of enforcement of an award has been the subject of varied judicial interpretation. The conflict arises from the fact that an award passed by a tribunal is not always produced before the courts, unlike decrees in civil suits. In civil proceedings...
Call for Submissions for the 11th Volume of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law
[Announcement by the Indian Journal of International Economic Law] The Board of Editors of the Indian Journal of International Economic Law (IJIEL) is pleased to invite original and unpublished manuscripts for publication in Volume 11. About the Journal The IJIEL is a student-edited and peer-reviewed law journal published annually by National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU)...
Are Uber or Ola Drivers ‘Workmen’ under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947?
[Shourya Bari is an associate with a law firm in Mumbai and Aditi Singh Kashyap a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat] Introduction This post will explore the question whether Uber or Ola Drivers fall within the scope of ‘workman’ as defined in section 2(s) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (“ID Act”) to be able to obtain the benefits stipulated under that...
Fraudulent Initiation of Insolvency Proceedings
[Richa Saraf is a Legal Advisor at Vinod Kothari & Co.] Section 65 was incorporated in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) so that the provisions thereof cannot be misused by any person who has initiated the insolvency resolution process or liquidation proceedings with a fraudulent or malicious intent, and for any purpose other than for the resolution of insolvency or...
Madras High Court Grants Reprieve to Disqualified Directors
The Madras High Court in Bhagavan Das Dhananjay Das v. Union of India (decided on 3 August 2018 and accessible via Judis) struck down the order of the Registrar of Companies, Chennai (“RoC) which had disqualified a number of directors from their position in various companies. The Court was considering a large group of writ petitions that various disqualified directors had filed before it. In...
Concept of Related Party: Interpretation by Letter or Spirit of the IBC?
[Richa Saraf is a Legal Advisor at Vinod Kothari & Co.] In J.R. Agro Industries P. Limited v. Swadisht Oils P. Ltd. (decided on 24 July 2018), the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Allahabad observed that“if claim of related party is given priority over operational creditors, it would not be just to operational creditor”. In the instant matter, the related party and the corporate debtor...
NCLAT Settles the Fate of Proceedings under Section 138 of the NI Act during Bankruptcy
[Aayush Mitruka is a lawyer based in Delhi] The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (the NCLAT) settled a very important question of law under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the Code) which has been troubling practitioners. The question whether proceedings filed under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (the NI Act) against the corporate debtor will be stalled...
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