[Pratyush Singh is a third-year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] Does the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) have exclusive jurisdiction over matters pertaining to derivative action? In November 2022, the Madras High Court in Valluvar Kuzhumam Pvt. Ltd. v. APC Drilling & Construction Pvt. Ltd. ruled in the affirmative. The argument to bar a civil court’s...
Supreme Court Reiterates Rectificatory Jurisdiction Under Companies Act: A Conundrum Involving NCLT and SEBI
[Anshita Dave and Abhyudaya Yadav are 5th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur] Recently, the Supreme Court in IFB Agro Industries Limited v. SICGIL India Limited held that the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) cannot exercise its rectificatory jurisdiction under section 59 of the Companies Act, 2013 (“the Act”) to...
The Regulatory Progression of ESG in India
The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has had a pivotal status in the debates surrounding corporate law and governance at the turn of the century. Although CSR was ensconced in the idea of voluntarism by which companies and their boards are invited to pay attention to the interests of various constituencies affected by a company’s activities, in some jurisdictions such as India it...
SAT on the Non-Liability of a Company Secretary for Incorrect Disclosures
On 1 November 2022, the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) in V. Shankar v. Securities and Exchange Board of India exonerated the company secretary of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) from liability for certain misstatements and incorrect disclosures made by the company. Background and Decision The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had conducted investigation for certain...
Utilisation of Accumulated Surplus by Section 8 Companies
[Pammy Jaiswal is a Partner and Shraddha Shivani an Executive at Vinod Kothari and Company] Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for the formation of companies with specific objects. The profits earned by such companies necessarily get redeployed to pursue the very same objects for which the company is formed and cannot be distributed to the shareholders. There are several restraints to...
Ratification of Director’s Breach of Duty: Opportunity to Evade Liability?
[Arjun Tyagi is a fourth year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at National Law University Odisha.] Directors of companies owe fiduciary and ‘statutory’ (section 166 of the Companies Act 2013) duties to the company, its employees and the shareholders. Common law principles provide ratification of breach of duty by directors, if the shareholders pass a resolution agreeing to absolve directors from...
Covid-19 and Company Law: The Impact of Digitalisation
[Dharini Shanker is a 1st Year LL.B student at Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi] The Company Law Committee (“Committee”), set up to make recommendations to the Government for reforms directed at promoting greater ease of business in India and the effective implementation of the Companies Act, 2013 (“Act”), the LLP Act, 2008 and the Rules made thereunder, has submitted its report in March...
Applicability of Significant Beneficial Owner Provisions to Limited Liability Partnerships
[Gaurav Pingle is practising company secretary and can be reached at [email protected]] With an intention to regulate limited liability partnerships (‘LLPs’) more stringently, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (‘MCA’) issued a notification dated February 11, 2022 (‘MCA Notification’) whereby certain provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 are now applicable to LLPs. The said amendment falls...
Should India Allow Fractional Share Investing?
[Ajith Kidambi is a V year student at the NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Fractional share investing could finally be a reality in the Indian stock market. The Company Law Committee, which the Ministry of Corporate Affairs constituted in 2019, had released its third report in April 2022, making several recommendations to the government to improve the ease of doing business in India and...
Zee v. Invesco: Jurisdiction Battle between the High Court and the NCLT
[Neharika Chhabra and Gourav Kathuria are fourth-year B.A. LL.B (Hons.) students at NALSAR University of Law] On 22 March 2022, a division bench of the Bombay High Court in Invesco Developing Markets Fund v. Zee Entertainment Enterprises overturned the judgment of a single judge. It held that section 430 of the Companies Act (the ‘Act’) bars the High Court from adjudicating matters arising under...
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