[Rahul Kanoujia and Venkata Supreeth K are student at Gujarat National Law University] The case of Garware Wall Ropes Ltd. v. Coastal Marine Constructions & Engineering Co. Ltd, decided by the Supreme Court in April 2019, involved an application made by Coastal Marine under section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, for the appointment of a sole arbitrator in response to certain...
Supreme Court on Arbitration Agreement in an Unstamped Instrument
[Mansi Patel is a Partner, SRA Consulere, Advocates] In Garware Wall Ropes v Coastal Marine Constructions & Engineering Ltd (10 April 2019), the Supreme Court held that an arbitration agreement in an unstamped instrument does not exist in law; thus it cannot be acted upon by courts for the appointment of an arbitrator under section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. By this...
Improperly Stamped Arbitral Awards: When Can Courts Interfere?
[Athira Sankar is a 5th year B.A. LL.B student at National Law University, Jodhpur] Introduction The effect of non-payment of stamp duty at the time of enforcement of an award has been the subject of varied judicial interpretation. The conflict arises from the fact that an award passed by a tribunal is not always produced before the courts, unlike decrees in civil suits. In civil proceedings...
Corporatisation Prospects for Unregistered Entities: Amendment to Section 366 of the Companies Act, 2013
[Pammy Jaiswal is a Partner at Vinod Kothari and Company] Background By virtue of the enforcement notification of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (‘MCA’) dated 5 July 2018, the proposed change under section 75 of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 (‘Amendment Act’) relating to section 366 of the Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act, 2013’) has been notified with effect from 15 August 2018. Further, by...
Bombay High Court on Arbitration Agreement in an Unstamped Instrument
[Mansi M Patel is an Associate at IndusLaw] The Bombay High Court in Coastal Marine Construction and Engineering Limited v Garware-Wall Ropes Limited (March 2018) observed that in accordance with the amended provisions of section 11 of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996 (the “Act”), the role of the court to refer a dispute to arbitration is narrow and is limited to examine the existence...
Ushering a New Era for ARCs: Stamp Duty Exemption on Assignments
[The following post is contributed by Vinod Kothari and Nidhi Bothra of Vinod Kothari & Co. The authors may be reached at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively] Introduction Assignment of actionable claims/ receivables is achieved by an instrument, and such an instrument requires stamp duty. The United Kingdom (UK), Hong Kong, Malaysia and India are examples of...
Stamp Duty on Inter-State Amalgamations
[This post is slightly longer than our usual posts. I would like to thank a reader for drawing attention to a judgment that is the subject matter of this post] Stamp duty on schemes of amalgamation undertaken through sections 391 to 394 of the Companies Act, 1956 have tended to experience a great deal of controversy, as we have previous discussed on this Blog (here, here and here). A recent...
Stamp Duty on Mortgages in Syndicated Lending Transactions
Background Syndicated loans are quite common in lending transactions. In large loans, a single bank may not be in a position to provide the loan by itself. Hence, the loan is syndicated such that “two or more banks agree to make loans to a borrower on common terms governed by a single agreement between all parties.”[1] Similarly, a common security trustee is appointed to receive and hold the...
MCA Circular: Secured Corporate Debentures and Public Deposit Norms – Part 3
[The following is a guest post from Vinod Kothari and Nidhi Ladha of Vinod Kothari & Company. The authors can be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected] respectively. This is the final post in the series. The first two posts can be accessed here and here] Other laws affecting debentures Following are the other guidelines, rules or directions attracting issue...
Calcutta High Court: Stamp Duty on Mergers/Demergers
We have earlier discussed the peculiar issues that have arisen on whether schemes of arrangement in the form of mergers and demergers are liable to stamp duty in states where the Indian Stamp Act applies or where there is no specific entry for levying stamp duty on such transactions. In relation to several states such as Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, the relevant High Courts have held that...
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