[Job Michael Mathew is a 4th year BA.LL.B (Hons) student at NALSAR University of Law. He may be reached at [email protected]] This post examines whether the instrument of rights issue can be used by unlisted companies in enforcing anti-dilution provisions which may be one of terms in a shareholders’ agreement with a foreign investor. Put simply, anti-dilution means compensating the investor...
Supreme Court Declines to Make Composite Reference to Arbitration from Interrelated Multiple Agreements
[Ritvik M. Kulkarni is an associate with Wadia Ghandy & Co., Mumbai. Views are strictly personal] In its order last month in Duro Fulgeura v. Gangavaram Port Ltd., the Supreme Court of India refused to make a composite reference and to appoint a single arbitral tribunal for disputes arising out of multiple agreements between the same parties (the “Order”). Factual Background A tender was...
The Status of MLM Companies in India
[Shubhi Goyal is a 4th Year Student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Multi-level Marketing Companies (“MLM Companies”) sell their products and services directly to consumers, instead of following the traditional distribution channel of Manufacturer – Distributor – Wholesaler – Retailer – Consumer. They rely for their business on a non-salaried workforce, which sells products to...
Proxy Holders and Corporate Representatives: The Obligation to Vote According to Instructions
[Job Michael Mathew is a 4th year BA.LL.B (Hons) student at NALSAR University of Law. He may be reached at [email protected]] This post examines the question whether proxyholders appointed under section 105 of Companies Act, 2013 (the “Act”) and corporate representatives appointed under section 113 are required to vote according to the specific instructions given to them by their appointers...
The Ambiguous Treatment of Non-Compete Covenants in Joint Venture Agreements
[Anubhuti Maithani is a 2nd year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, India] A non-compete clause (NCC) is a restrictive covenant, frequently found in combination agreements like mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and joint venture agreements, that prohibits one party from competing with the other on terms stipulated therein. In other words, it restricts one party...
Ordinance to Amend the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Promulgated
In recent weeks, there has been an intense debate, including on this Blog, about whether promoters (particularly those broadly considered wilful defaulters) must be allowed to bid for assets being sold as part of the resolution plan for a debtor company under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”). This debate was sparked partly by certain transparency norms introduced by the...
Undue Emphasis on Certificate from a Financial Institution under Insolvency Law
[Aayush Mitruka is a lawyer based in Delhi] The working of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) has given rise to several challenges which need to be adequately addressed. The Code enables an operational creditor to initiate a corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) under section 9 provided it has complied with the requirement of sending a demand notice to the corporate debtor...
Settlement under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016: A Contrarian Perspective
[Shaleen Tiwari is an Advocate, Bombay High Court and a graduate of Hidayatullah National Law University, BA.LLB (Hons.), 2016] This post represents a contrarian view to the one adopted in a November 17, 2017 post titled ‘The Jeopardy of Settlements in Insolvency Cases’. Forming the cornerstone of the discussion here is the recent Supreme Court order in Uttara Foods and Feeds Private Limited v...
Survey on Succession Planning in Indian Companies
Historically, the issue of succession planning has received scant attention from a policy perspective in the corporate governance debates in India. More recently, however, succession planning has played a key role in corporate governance episodes such as Tata Sons and Infosys, thereby highlighting the importance of the concept. Regulators and policymakers have begun to place emphasis on...
Unexplored Antitrust and Contract Law Issues In Indian Transport Aggregation
[Arjun Agarwal is a 5th year student at WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata and Pragya Dahiya a 4th year student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. The authors can be contacted at [email protected]] Much has been written about anti-trust issues surrounding the practices adopted by the likes of Uber and Ola in India. Hardly any attention has, however, been paid to the...
The Jeopardy of Settlements in Insolvency Cases
[Shreya Prakash is a BCL student at the University of Oxford. Earlier posts on the topic can be found here and here.] The Supreme Court in a recent order recommended that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy (Application to the Adjudicating Authority) Rules, 2016 be amended to allow for settlement between an individual debtor and creditor after an insolvency petition has been accepted. With respect...
Inconsistency between FDI policy and FCRA in the Media Sector
[Aditya Singh Rajput and Nelson Chaudhuri are researchers at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), New Delhi. The authors thank Radhika Pandey and Sumant Prashant from NIPFP for their valuable inputs] The post highlights an inconsistency which exists in the current Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) with respect...
The Ability of Promoters to Bid for their Own Companies in Insolvency
[Anupam Choudhary is an Associate at Agram Legal Consultants, a law firm based in Mumbai. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the view of his firm nor do they constitute legal opinion] Recently, there has considerable debate over whether promoters of insolvent companies can submit bids in the bidding process for their own companies. Recently, the Essar...
SARFAESI Amendment: The “Qualified Buyers” Confusion Remains
[Akhileshwari Anand Raj is a 3rd year B.Com LL.B (Hons.) student at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] The amendments last year to the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) were long overdue. They sought to ensure that the various banking and recovery laws were in consonance with each other, and they also...
One Year On: The Effect of Demonetization on the Companies Act, 2013
[Shikha Rawal is an Associate at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.] “Demonetization” is a topic that has evoked considerable interest and strong opinions across the board since it was announced a year ago, i.e. on November 8, 2016. The goal of demonetization was to eliminate the unaccounted cash transactions, and thereby strengthen the economy. Differences of opinion abound on whether...
Reviewing Arbitrability at the Interim Relief Stage
[Agnish Aditya is a 4th Year B.B.A LL.B student at NLU Odisha] In a judgment rendered last month, the Madras High Court considered the impact of non-arbitrability on granting an interim relief. In Lifestyle Equities Cv v. QDSeatoman Designs Pvt. Ltd (“Lifestyle”), the Court was called upon to decide the arbitrability of certain disputes pertaining to intellectual property rights in an application...
Scope of Exemptions from Open Offer in case of Foreign Merger Transactions
[Supreme Waskar & Sumit Agrawal are lawyers from Suvan Law Advisors. Views are personal.] The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) in its recent informal guidance dated October 30, 2017 in the matter of Linde India Limited (“LIL”) has held that ‘review of merger process’ by ‘competent authorities’ will not exempt the proposed merger from the obligation to make an open offer under...
The ITAT Ruling in the NDTV Case: Some Final Thoughts
[Post by Shreya Rao. The earlier posts in this series can be found here and here] A quick recap This is the third in a three-part series of posts about the ruling of the Delhi ITAT in the NDTV case. As readers may recall, part 1 commented on how the NDTV tax case paints a poor picture of all actors: The facts as described by the tribunal portray NDTV in a poor light (note that NDTV disputes...
Categorization of Pledge Under SEBI’s Insider Trading Regulations, 1992: Arguments against the Tide
[Parth Dixit is a 4th Year, BA/LLB (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune.] By way of its order dated August 11, 2017 in the case of SRSR Holdings Private Limited v. Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) has provided a degree of finality to an important question raised in the aftermath of the infamous Satyam scam of 2009-2010. The question was...
Deconstructing the Delhi High Court’s Anti-Arbitration Injunction against Vodafone UK’s BIT Arbitration
[Ritvik M. Kulkarni is Associate, Wadia Ghandy & Co., Mumbai. Views are strictly personal] The Delhi High Court (the Court) in its order dated 22nd August 2017 has passed an ex-parte interim injunction restraining Vodafone UK entities (Defendants) from initiating investment arbitration against the Union of India (UOI) under the India-UK Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) (the Order). Amidst...
The ITAT Ruling in the NDTV Case: Piercing the Corporate Veil in Tax Matters
[Post by Shreya Rao. An earlier post in this series can be found here.] There is a coyness surrounding the term “lifting of the corporate veil”. It conveys a fragility of form and suggests that the legal personality of a company isn’t as robust as we assume it to be. Common law is most dismissive of such suggestions; over the 120 years since the ruling of the House of Lords in Salomon v. Salomon...
The (Negligible) Role of Shareholders in Corporate Insolvency
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) yesterday issued a clarification stating that no resolution or approval of the shareholders of a debtor company will be required in order to give effect to a resolution plan under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC). It appears that stakeholders sought the MCA clarification on account of section 30(2)(e) of the IBC, which requires the resolution...
Real Estate Regulatory Act and PPP Projects
[Deepak K. Thakur is a projects partner at a law firm and is based in Mumbai] The Real Estate (Regulation and Development Act 2016) (“RERA Act”) that took effect from May 1, 2017 seeks to provide a solution to many of the practical issues faced by the concerned stakeholders in the real estate industry. The RERA Act also contains consumer oriented provisions to protect their interests, with...
SEBI: Rules on Profit Sharing Arrangements Apply to Unlisted Subsidiaries
The rules introduced earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) that impose restrictions on profit sharing arrangements in respect of listed companies have already provoked interpretational controversies. In an earlier informal guidance (relating to Accelya Kale Solutions Limited), SEBI clarified profit sharing arrangements that involved employees being provided...
SEBI Circular on Minimum Public Shareholding
[Sarthak Karol is an associate at a law firm in Mumbai] By way of a Circular dated October 10, 2017, (“Circular”), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) issued directions to stock exchanges to come down heavily on listed entities, their promoters and directors who are in breach of the 25% minimum public shareholding (“MPS”) norms mandated under regulation 38 of the SEBI (Listing...
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