[Akash Kumar Surya is a 3rd year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru] In the case of In Re: Interplay the Supreme Court recently delivered its verdict on the legal position of unstamped arbitration agreement in India. The judgement has settled the issue, bringing clarity on a matter whose jurisprudence has otherwise been marked by chequered...
Unstamped Arbitration Agreements: Will the Wheels Stop Spinning?
On 13 December 2023, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court rendered its verdict in In Re: The Interplay between arbitration agreements under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, and the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 (“In Re: The Interplay”) on the validity and enforceability of unstamped arbitration agreements. This issue had become a matter of some consternation for the arbitration community...
Stamping Out Uncertainty: Resolving the Conundrum of Unstamped Arbitration Agreements
[Hrishikesh Goswami and Aryan Soni are 3rd year students at the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar] The enforceability of arbitration clauses within inadequately stamped agreements has been a longstanding matter of legal scrutiny, with divergent opinions and decisions from various courts, including the Supreme Court. However, a significant resolution was achieved on December 13, 2023...
SPAC Listings in India: Regulatory Hurdles and the Way Forward
[Devarsh Shah is a third-year law student at Gujarat National Law University] One of the most significant developments in the international capital markets in the past couple of years has been the revival of ‘Special Purpose Acquisition Vehicles (SPACs)’. In 2020, around $80 billion was raised in the US by 247 SPACs representing almost 50% of the raised capital of about $174 billion. While SPAC...
Supreme Court on Arbitration Agreements and Stamp Duty: Hits and Misses
[Rohan Deshpande practices as a Counsel at the Bombay High Court, and Karan Kamath is an Advocate practicing at Mumbai] On January 11, 2020, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in NN Global Mercantile Pvt. Ltd. v. Indo Unique Flame Ltd. opined that the declaration of law on arbitration agreements contained in contracts which were subject to insufficient stamp duty required reconsideration...
Stamp Duty Amendments on Securities Transactions: The Impact of Covid-19
[Bhavna Hemrajani is a 4th year student at Amity Law School Delhi (affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Delhi)] The Finance Act, 2019 amended the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 to insert section 9A, which deals with ‘Instruments chargeable with duty for transactions in stock exchange and depositaries’, and section 9B, which relates to instruments ‘chargeable with duty for transactions...
A Stamp Paper – What Good is it Beyond Six Months?
[Shivani Vij is an advocate practicing before the Supreme Court of India, High Court of Delhi and various statutory and arbitral tribunals] In India, instruments creating title or any other interest in property, including commercial documents, are subject to payment of a fiscal duty to the Government in the form of ‘stamp duty’. Although the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, a central legislation, governs...
No Stamp Duty or Registration Fees on Conversion from Public Company to Private Company: H.P. High Court
[Deepika Shori and Madhusudan Bose are Advocates at PRA Law Offices] Stamp duty is ordinarily payable on transfer of movable and immovable properties, and several other specified transactions under stamp duty law. Corporate transactions such as mergers, amalgamations, slump sales and the like are naturally liable to stamp duty because they involve transfer of properties between two entities...
The Unenforceability of Arbitration Clauses in Insufficiently Stamped Documents: A Reaffirmation
[Anirban Chanda is a 4th year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student and Anujay Shrivastava a 5th Year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student, both at the Jindal Global Law School] It is a settled legal principle that a document containing an arbitration clause or an independent arbitration agreement which is insufficiently stamped is not enforceable in the Indian courts for arbitration under Part-I of the Arbitration...
Payment of Stamp Duty Inconsequential to Enforceability of a Foreign Arbitral Award in India
[Anirban Chanda is a fourth-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student and Anujay Shrivastava a final-year B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) student at Jindal Global Law School] While the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, even after the 2015 amendment, does not expressly lay down any legal requirement that mandates parties to an arbitration agreement to pay stamp duties on an arbitral award, there has been...
Recent Comments