[This is a guest post contributed by Rishabh Raheja, a third year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.] The Supreme Court was presented with the perfect opportunity to clarify the relationship between frustration, force majeure and hardship or commercial impracticability in its decision in Energy Watchdog v. Central Electricity Regulatory Authority. While it has already been...
Frustration in Indian Law
On this blog, we had previously looked at the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in Energy Watchdog v. CERC and connected appeals. An earlier post had examined the decision, and had concluded that the Court “arguably misstated the law when it found that the mere existence of a force majeure clause would prevent the parties from bringing an alternative claim under section 56….” The...
Force Majeure Clauses and Impossibility Under the Indian Contract Act
[Post by Isha Jain, who is a 4th year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Other posts related to this topic are available here and here.] The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Energy Watchdog v. Central Electricity Regulatory Authority (“Adaní”) has obscured rather than clarified the law on contractual impossibility in India. The case was concerned with the...
A Proposal for Dealing With Force Majeure Clauses Under Contract Law
[Post by Siddharth Bajpai, who is a 4th year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Other posts related to this topic are available here and here.] Introduction In 2013, Adani Enterprises entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission and Haryana State Regulatory Commission. Under the terms of the arrangement, Adani was...
Supreme Court on Force Majeure Clauses in Power Purchase Agreements
[Other posts related to this topic are available here and here.] In 2013, we had discussed an order of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) in a matter involving Adani Power. The brief facts of the case, as discussed therein, are as follows: Adani Power had entered into separate PPAs with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited and two Haryana utilities under which Adani Power had agreed...
Disgorgement Orders under Indian Securities Law
[The following guest post is contributed by Shubham Janghu, a third year student at Jindal Global Law School with inputs and minor edits by Aditya Swarup, who is an Assistant Professor at Jindal Global Law School.] Introduction Gain-based remedies, though rarely adjudicated in India, are an important aspect of commercial law. The powers of courts to award such remedies arise from statute, for...
Supersession of Bond Terms by State Legislation Disallowed
In Kalyan Janta Sahakari Bank v. State of Gujarat, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court was concerned with whether a legislation passed by the Gujarat State Legislature can unilaterally alter the terms of an issue of bonds by the government company to the detriment of the bond investors. The Court answered in the negative by striking down the legislation on grounds of lack of legislative...
Lalman v Gauri Dutt: Legend and Reality
(The following guest post is contributed by Shivprasad Swaminathan, who is Associate Professor at the Jindal Global Law School) “As has often happened, in the law the case [becomes] more important not for what the judges said but for what the legal profession came to believe the case stood for.” P. Atiyah, Rise and Fall of the Freedom of Contract p. 414 The Stuff of Legends There are...
Assignability of Life Insurance Policies
The controversial practice of companies taking out “dead peasants” insurance on the life of their employees was depicted by Michael Moore in his film “Capitalism: A Love Story”. In this, companies took insurance policies on the lives of their employees and also paid the premium on them. In case of the death of their employees, the claims would be paid out to the employer, and the family of the...
Contract Depriving a Party of Interest: Immorality and Public Policy
[The following guest post is contributed by Amitav Singh, a fourth-year student at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS), Kochi] In a recent decision in Union of India v. M/s NK Garg & Co. (“NK Garg”), decided on 2 November, 2015, a single judge of the Delhi High Court (“Court”) held that any agreement by which a party is deprived of interest would be void on the ground...
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