[Guest post by Aayush Mitruka, a lawyer based in Delhi.] In an earlier post, I had discussed the moratorium provision (i.e., section 14) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”), the legislative intent behind the provision and its impact on proceedings for dishonor of cheques under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. More recently, in Canara Bank v Deccan Chronicle Holdings...
Conversion of Tata Sons into a Private Limited Company: In Whose Interest?
The proposed conversion of Tata Sons Limited from a public limited company to a private limited company has reignited the corporate governance issues that the Tata Group has faced over the last year or so. Menaka Doshi has an interesting piece (and an accompanying interview with two corporate lawyers) in BloombergQuint that sets out some of the background to why Tata Sons proposes (and that too...
Private Equity Investors as Promoters in an Initial Public Offer
[Guest post by Rashmi Ramanath, who is a 5th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School in Sonipat] The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of SKS Microfinance was a first of its kind. It was for the first time that a group of four venture capitalists led by Sequoia Capital India were named as promoters to an issue. Vikram Akula, one of the company’s founders, owned a 6% stake in the...
Moratorium under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Code: Impact on Proceedings for Cheque Dishonour
[Guest post by Aayush Mitruka, a lawyer based in Delhi. An earlier version of this post was published in the newsletter of ICSI – Pune chapter.] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) is an all-encompassing legislation which is, inter alia, aimed at a structured and time-bound process for insolvency resolution and liquidation. Chapter II (Part II) of the Code contains...
Director as “Any Person Aggrieved” under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code
[Guest post by Vaidehi Shankar, Associate at Mundkur Law Partners, Bangalore. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author in her personal capacity and do not, in any way or manner, reflect the position or opinion of Mundkur Law Partners] On August 31, 2017, the Supreme Court delivered one of the first landmark judgments on the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) in...
Court’s Power to Terminate Arbitrator’s Mandate: SC Settles Long Outstanding Debate
[Guest post by Sumit Rai, who is an independent counsel in Mumbai, practicing with special focus on international and domestic arbitration as well as arbitration related litigation] In HRD Corporation v Gail (India) Ltd. (decided on August 31, 2017), the Supreme Court held that for any infraction of section 12(5) read with the Seventh Schedule of the amended Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996...
Eligibility Criteria for Insolvency Resolution Professionals: A Critique
[Guest post by Lavanya Chawla, Batch of 2017, National Law School of India University, Bangalore] With more than 270 days gone by since the enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the Code), the time is ripe to analyse whether the Code has proved to be the magical wand it proclaimed to be. One of the new functionaries introduced by the Code is the Resolution Professional (RP)...
Liability of Personal Guarantors of a Corporate Debtor during the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process
[Guest post by Param Pandya, Research Fellow, Corporate Law and Financial Law, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi. The views expressed by the author are personal.] On September 6, 2017, the Allahabad High Court in the case of Sanjeev Shriya vs. State Bank of India (“Sanjeev Case”) decided the question of the liability of personal guarantors of a company where moratorium under section 14 of...
Restrictive Remedy under Section 14 of the SARFAESI Act
[Guest post by Richa Saraf, Assistant Legal Advisor, Vinod Kothari & Co.] In a recent ruling of the Calcutta High Court in Union Bank of India & Anr. v. State of West Bengal & Ors. (September 1, 2017), the object and intention behind section 14 of the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (the “Act”) was discussed. The...
International Business Law Essay Competition
[Announcement posted on behalf of Verus, a law firm] Verus presents the Inaugural Edition of the REEMA RAY PRIZE IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW 2017. The prize is instituted in memory of Reema Ray (1982-2013), who was a brilliant young corporate lawyer in one of the leading law firms in India. Her friends, family and colleagues remember her as a rare person with exceptional qualities of heart and...
SEBI Refrains from Resolving Ambiguity on Permissible Investor Protection Rights
[The following post is contributed by Supreme Waskar, who is a corporate lawyer in Mumbai. An earlier post on this topic is available here.] The existing definition of control under regulation 2(1)(e) of SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (the “Takeover Regulations”), defines “control” in inclusive manner as a right to (a) appoint a majority of...
“Control” Untouched in the Takeover Regulations: A Case of Regulatory Inertia
Let’s just say, it is not at all surprising. After carrying out an extensive consultation that lasted more than a year with a view to defining the concept of “control” under the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (the “Takeover Regulations”), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has come around a whole circle. It has, by retaining the current definition...
Interim Orders of an Arbitral Tribunal: Contempt, Execution and Beyond
[Guest Post by Swastika Chakravarti, a 5th year law student at National Law University Odisha] The Indian judiciary created a unique mechanism for the enforcement of interim orders passed by an arbitral tribunal by holding that a party that does not comply with such orders can be held liable for contempt of court. The Supreme Court in the judgment of Alka Chandewar v. Shamshul Ishrar Khan (July...
Implied Exclusion or Express Exclusion of Section 9 (Interim measures): Post Amendment of Section 2(2)
[Guest post by RV Prabhat, who is a practising advocate before the Delhi High Court. He can be contacted at [email protected]] The question of applicability of the provisions of Part I of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (hereinafter referred as 1996 Act) to the Foreign Seated Arbitrations has time and again come up before the Supreme Court of India (“Supreme Court”) and...
Conflicts and Gaps in Regulatory Aspects of Schemes of Arrangement
[Guest post by Purvi Khanna, a 4th year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ recent notifications formalise an overhaul in the procedure for Schemes of Arrangements (“SoA”). . This post attempts to shed light on certain commercial aspects, and the inconsistencies and overlaps in the provisions of the Companies Act 2013 (the “Act”), the...
Supreme Court’s Stay Order in the Jaypee Insolvency Case
It was only last week that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) and the insolvency proceedings initiated thereunder received a fillip from the Supreme Court in Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank (discussed here). Within a matter of a few days, a contrary result emerged from the Supreme Court in Chitra Sharma v. Union of India which has struck a temporary blow to the...
SEBI’s Policy on Self-Trades
[Guest post by Jitesh Maheshwari, Associate at Mindspright Legal in Mumbai] Introduction Self-trades are trades executed on the stock market in which the same entity is both buyer and seller. These trades do not represent a real change in beneficial ownership of the security. Earlier, the position on self-trades was that they create artificial or fictitious volume in the market, and give a false...
The Tata Corporate Governance Episode: The ‘India-Specific’ Issues and Concerns
[Guest post by Priya Garg, a 4th year law-student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (WBNUJS)] Introduction The recent turf battle within the Tata Group is likely to become a subject matter of study for various disciplines, including the subject of corporate law and governance.[1] The Tata-Mistry dispute giving rise to corporate governance issues needs to be considered...
The Costs and Benefits of Creditor Control under Insolvency Law
[Guest post by Enakshi Jha, who is a graduate from NALSAR University of Law and is currently working at a corporate law firm in Mumbai] The principal benefit of a creditor controlled insolvency law is the efficiency it brings to the market and the advantages it holds for entrepreneurship. First, as a model spearheaded by the persons whose money is at stake (section 6 of the Insolvency and...
Supreme Court Affirms Creditor-Friendly Nature of Insolvency Law
Background The Supreme Court yesterday delivered its first substantive ruling under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) in Innoventive Industries Limited v. ICICI Bank. Incidentally, this relates to the first corporate insolvency case to be admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) after the Code came into effect in December 2016. The Supreme Court rejected a...
Supreme Court on Prosecuting a Company for Cheque Dishonour
The Supreme Court in N. Harihara Krishnan v. J. Thomas ruled yesterday on certain procedural aspects relating to the offence under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (“NI Act”) of dishonour of a cheque issued by a company. It held that any failure to include the company as an accused in the complaint at the outset (i.e. within the limitation period) would be fatal to the...
Call For Papers: NLUD Student Law Journal, Volume 5
The NLUD Student Law Journal is National Law University, Delhi’s flagship journal. It is an annual student edited, peer-reviewed law journal, which seeks to provide a forum for engaging in discussions on varied issues of contemporary importance in domestic and international law and policy. The aim of the journal is to provide a platform for discussion of matters relating to crucial developments...
SEBI Informal Guidance on Profit Sharing Arrangements
Last year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) clamped down on upside sharing arrangements between promoters or senior management of listed companies on the one hand and private equity investors on the other. Accordingly, the securities regulator amended the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (the “LODR Regulations”) to introduce regulation...
The ITAT Ruling in the NDTV Case: Some Thoughts and Questions
[Post by Shreya Rao] The ruling of the Delhi Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in the case of NDTV presents a poor picture of all actors. NDTV’s transactions fail to pass the smell test. The framing of the revenue’s position fails to convince you that NDTV’s smelly transactions should trigger a tax under law. The ruling itself is a 385-page tome written in the stream of consciousness style. It...
Applicability of the Limitation Act to Insolvency Proceedings
[Guest post by Ashish Virmani & Tanisha Khaitan, both lawyers based in New Delhi and graduates of National Law University Jodhpur] The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (“NCLAT”) in a recent judgement dated 11 August, 2017 in Neelkanth Township vs. Urban Infrastructure held that the Limitation Act, 1963 is not applicable to proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the...
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