[Khushi Maheshwari is a 3rd year student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and Apoorva Satapathy a 4th year student at the National Law University of Odisha, Cuttack] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”) has been amended thrice since its introduction in 2016. Each amendment has sought to remove bottlenecks in the corporate insolvency process and streamline the...
Director Liability: Nexus with Role and not Position
[Pammy Jaiswal is a Partner at Vinod Kothari and Company, and can be reached at [email protected]] While there have been an increasing number of rulings on the liability of directors, the question that mostly came up for examination related to their involvement in the day-to-day operations of the company. The liability of non-executive directors has mostly been scanned to evaluate their...
Actions against Independent Directors for Dishonour of Cheques
The question of liability of independent directors is a sensitive one given such directors carry substantial risk without having an influence in the day-to-day management of the company. Hence, the Companies Act, 2013 introduced a specific carve out in section 149(12) by which an independent director cannot be made liable for acts pertaining to the company except in limited circumstances “which...
Attachment of Property: Efficacy of the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act in the Backdrop of the Criminal Procedure Code
[Surya Rajkumar is a third year law student at the Jindal Global Law School, Haryana] Introduction The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018(the “Act”) came into force on the 21 April 2018. According to its preamble, the Act provides “for measures to deter fugitive economic offenders from evading the process of law in India by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts………”. While there are...
Reclassification of Non-Compoundable Offences under the Companies Act, 2013: Impact on Section 203
[Radhika Parthasarathy is a 4th Year B.A. LL.B. (Business Law Honours) Student at National Law University, Jodhpur] Introduction The Committee to Review Offences under the Companies Act, 2013, was set up by the Ministry of Company Affairs in July 2018 to recommend the recategorization of acts that have been, for so long, cognizable offences under the Companies Act, 2013 [the “Act”]. The Report of...
Impact Analysis of Committee Recommendations on Offences under the Companies Act
[Gaurav Pingle is a practising Company Secretary in Pune and can be reached at [email protected]] The Government of India had constituted a Committee to review the existing framework dealing with offences under the Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act’) and related matters. The Committee was also required to make recommendations to promote better corporate compliance. The Committee submitted its final...
Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill: An Overview
[Meera Sreekumar is a corporate lawyer and a graduate of the National Law School of India University, Bangalore] Introduction In the backdrop of the Nirav Modi scam, the Union Cabinet has approved the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 (the “Bill”). The Government of India initially introduced the Bill in the budget session of 2017-2018, and re-introduced it in the Lok Sabha on March 12, 2018...
Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill: A Viable Project or a Doomed Battle?
[Malcolm Katrak is a Law Clerk to Justice (Retd.) S. N. Variava, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India] Recently, the Law Ministry affirmed the draft ‘Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2017’, which gives powers to the Government to confiscate property of economic offenders and defaulters. This Bill flows from the Finance Minister’s budget speech promising legislative changes to confiscate the...
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...
Supreme Court on Vicarious Liability of Corporate Officers
[Guest post by Rahul Bajaj, a final year law student at the University of Nagpur and a SpicyIP fellow] The issue of corporate criminal liability has always been a vexed one, raising as it does profound jurisprudential questions that go to the heart of the separate legal status enjoyed by companies. As Professor Varottil noted in his analysis of the Sunil Bharti Mittal judgment on this Blog that...
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