[Garima Mehra and D Sharma are both Advocates] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Ordinance 2018 (the “Ordinance”) was recently promulgated by the President. It incorporates the key recommendations of the Insolvency Law Reform Committee’s (“ILRC”) report published on 3 April 2018 (Report). One of the significant recommendations is the inclusion of homebuyers within the ambit of...
Status of Homebuyers in Corporate Insolvency: Will Ordinance Assure Relief and Returns?
[Swaha Sinha is a 3rd year B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) student at Symbiosis Law School, Pune] The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (the Code) has been subject to endless scrutiny and suggested changes, with some being implemented through recent amendments. Most strikingly, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs constituted an expert panel to recommend amendments to this ground-breaking statute, resulting in the...
No Arbitration in Consumer and Real Estate Disputes
[Ajar Rab is a Partner at Rab & Rab Associates LLP, Dehradun] In an earlier post, I had discussed the decision of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (“NCDRC”) in Aftab Singh v. Emaar MGF Land Limited & Anr, which had held that consumers disputes are not arbitrable under section 2(3) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The post had referred to the possibility of...
Amendments to the Regulatory Framework for REITs And InvITs: An Analysis
[Jubair Bhati and Anjali Choudhary are 5th year B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) students at School of Law, Raffles University, Neemrana (Rajasthan)] The regulatory framework for real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and infrastructure investment trusts (“InvITs”) was first introduced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) in 2014. However, these structures did not experience a great...
Bombay High Court Upholds the Constitutional Validity of RERA
Bhushan Shah & Neha Laxman are with Mansukhlal Hiralal & Company. The Supreme Court of India had transferred a series of writ petitions filed by developers and builders challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Real Estate Regulation and Development Act, 2016 (RERA or Act) to the Bombay High Court. On 6 December 2017, a division bench of the Bombay High Court...
Real Estate Regulatory Act and PPP Projects
[Deepak K. Thakur is a projects partner at a law firm and is based in Mumbai] The Real Estate (Regulation and Development Act 2016) (“RERA Act”) that took effect from May 1, 2017 seeks to provide a solution to many of the practical issues faced by the concerned stakeholders in the real estate industry. The RERA Act also contains consumer oriented provisions to protect their interests, with...
The Curious Case of Homebuyers under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
[Manaswi Agarwal is an advocate based in Mumbai and Aayush Mitruka is an advocate based in New Delhi] One of the crucial issues which has emerged and is widely talked about under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) relates to the interest of homebuyers under the Code. The jurisprudence developing around the Code does not adequately address their concerns, and therefore the law...
Towards a Conducive Framework for REITs – Recent SEBI Amendments
[The following guest post is contributed by Sumit Agrawal, Partner, Suvan Law Advisors and Arka Saha, a final year law Student from National Law University, Orissa. Views are personal] Although the capital and commodities market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), had introduced Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) Regulations on September 26, 2014, REITs are yet to...
Update: Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016
[The following post is contributed by Bhushan Shah and Labdhi Shah from Mansukhlal Hiralal & Company. The views expressed herein are personal] Parliament of India has passed the much awaited Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2016 (Regulation) in the ongoing Budget Session. The Regulation has been enacted with the intention of protecting buyers, bringing transparency and...
Indian REITs – Story So Far, Challenges and Expectations from Budget 2016
[This guest post is contributed by Yashesh Ashar and Swati Adukia. They are tax professionals and specialize in mergers and acquisition tax. Please note that the views are personal] I. Introduction The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) notified the SEBI (Real Estate Investment Trusts) Regulations, 2014 (“REIT Regulations”)...
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