[Devansh Parekh and Tanishq Mohta are BLS. LL.B. students at the Government Law College, Mumbai] When early-stage companies set out to raise capital, they are often presented with multiple fundraising vehicles to accomplish their goal. Over the years, hybrid instruments for investments such as Convertible Compulsory Debentures (“CCD”) and Compulsory Convertible Preference Shares (“CCPS”) have...
Repudiatory Breach of Contract: Right to Affirm Fettered in India
[Sriram Venkatavaradan and Saai Sudharsan Sathiyamoorthy are Advocates practicing at the Madras High Court and can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively] Where one party to a contract indicates by words or through conduct that he does not intend to perform his obligations, he is said to have repudiated the contract by his actions [Stephen A. Smith, Atiyah’s...
Is India Ready to Adopt the CISG? The Plight of Determinable Contracts
[Anshul Butani is a 5th year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore] On August 1, 2018, the Government of India enacted an amendment to the Specific Relief Act, 1963 to improve the ease of doing business in India. Prior to the Amendment, specific performance was an exceptional remedy for breach of contracts, granted at the discretion of the court...
Invocation of Pledged Shares: Disqualification from Seat on Committee of Creditors?
[Viti Bansal is a fourth year student of B.A. LL.B. (Hons) at Gujarat National Law University] The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”), under section 21(2), provides that a related party to the corporate debtor who is also a financial creditor of the corporate debtor will have no right of representation, participation or voting in a meeting of the committee of creditors (“CoC”). The...
To Compel or not to Compel: Extension of Arbitration Agreements to Non-Signatories
[Kushagra Jain and Vasundhara Sharan are 4th-year law students at Symbiosis Law School, Noida] The rapid globalization and growing institutionalization of international commercial disputes has led to a plethora of international and national laws, rules, and commentary. Reference to arbitration originates from the contours of the arbitration agreement and maintains privity of contract, consent by...
“No Oral Modification” Clause: A Tussle Over Interpreting Party Autonomy
[Divyansh Pareek and Divyansh Bhardwaj are 4th and 3rd year students of National Law University Odisha respectively] The Singapore Court of Appeal in Charles Lim Teng Siang v Hong Choon Hau (“Teng Siang”) has instigated a debate on the significance and extent of party autonomy in the contract. The court held that parties in a contract consisting a “no oral modification” clause (“NOM Clause”) can...
Proportionality: A New Special Equities Exception Against Invocation of Bank Guarantees
[Rhythm Buaria is an Advocate based in New Delhi] In an appeal under section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Arbitration Act”), a Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi in Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. v. National Hydro Electric Power Corporation Ltd., held that proportionality constitutes a special equities exception against invocation or encashment of unconditional bank...
Terminating Contracts with the Corporate Debtor during CIRP: Revisiting the Position
[Vaishali Movva is an associate at a law firm and a practicing advocate in Bengaluru] The provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2018 (‘IBC’) and the regulations thereunder mandate that a moratorium be imposed on the assets of the corporate debtor during the corporate insolvency resolution process (‘CIRP’). While the moratorium does not explicitly prohibit a third party from terminating...
Oriental Judgment: How Objective is “Just and Equitable” Interest Rate Modification?
[Anujay Shrivastava is a law graduate (class of 2020) from Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat. He is grateful to Professor Manasi Kumar for providing her valuable comments on an earlier post, which were inspiration for the present post] Previously, I had examined the Supreme Court’s Division-bench decision in Oriental Structural Engineers Pvt. Ltd. v. State of Kerala...
Insolvency and Personal Guarantors: Lalit Kumar v. Union of India
[Priyanka Pillai is an associate at IC Universal Legal, Mumbai] The protracted saga of the treatment of personal guarantors under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (the “Code”) seems to have been finally put to rest by the Supreme Court by way of its judgment in Lalit Kumar Jain v. Union of India. The inception of this tale was the notification issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs...
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