When CORONA Says 'See you in Court!': The Breadth Of Challenges Before The Indian Courts

They say that emergency situations are wake up calls. How are the Indian Courts holding up to their very first experience of a global pandemic and what lies ahead. Professor to 1st year law students : What is law, what is law? Is law relevant in emergency situations? Student : Prof., wouldn't we be concerned with Maslow's hierarchy of needs, especially in emergency situations and clearly law ain't one of them! Professor : Law is present at each hierarchical level -...

19 Key Relaxations In Corporate Laws In Times Of COVID-19

From China to Canada, from U.K. to U.S.A., from Senegal to Singapore, from Italy to India – the entire world has been fighting incessantly with the pandemic, the novel Corona Virus, that has been given the nomenclature of COVID-19 by the World Health Organization. It is a global health crisis, affecting all and sundry, and the numerous ways in which the countries worldwide are attempting to stymie the disease's outbreak are wide-ranging and commendable. The COVID-19 cases have...

Mediation And Jurisprudence - Aspiring To Complete Justice

Gone are the days when you spoke of "mediation" and people would mistake it to be "meditation". Even my computer has stopped doing an auto correct. But have we gone far enough in understanding mediation? Mediation is still regarded as a poorer cousin of the conventional adversarial processes like litigation and arbitration. It is understood as an ad hoc process of settlement of disputes at best and a kangaroo court at worst, in sharp contrast to the gravitas associated with litigation and...

Demystifying The Circle Rate Conundrum

Circle rates notified by the State Government perform a very important function in the process of recovery of Stamp duty leviable on documents presented for registration. The fixation of a circle rate affords a ready reckoner to the process of valuation of immovable properties, introduces transparency and reduces the scope for exercise of discretion by the registering authority. The notification of a circle rate which is the product of a very detailed exercise has become an accepted norm...

Coronavirus And The Constitution – III: The Curfew And The Quarantine

To talk about civil rights in the midst of a global pandemic may seem out of place. However, as the Kenyan legal scholar Joshua Maldizo Nyawa reminded us recently, Lord Atkin's legendary dictum – that "amidst the clash of arms, the laws are not silent" – applies as much to a public health crisis as it does to times of war or to Emergencies. In fact, it is precisely because of the sweeping powers that governments arrogate to themselves during times of crises, that it becomes even more important...

Corona Chaos And Test Of Collaborative Federalism

India's attempt to combat the Novel Coronavirus pandemic with an unprecedented total lockdown of the country has witnessed a major setback as millions of economically disadvantaged people, chiefly the daily wage earners in big cities are being forced to return to their ancestral places and hometowns, most of which are located in different states. They are helpless in this respect, as it's a matter of survival for them. Although a slew of initiatives have been announced by the Central and...

Take Over Of Unlisted Companies– Problematic Areas Of CAA Rules 2016 Framed Under Sec 230 Companies Act 2013

THE NEW RULES INTRODUCED IN THE ACT With the insertion of a new , brief Rule under the Companies (Compromise Arrangements and Amalgamations) Rules 2016, in the Companies Act 2013, (the Act) the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has empowered the majority shareholders of a company ,at their choice, to get rid of the minority shareholders of the company by buying out the latter's holding – analogous to compulsory acquisition of land by the government. Let us go through the...

Shreya Singhal v Union Of India Offers Us A North Star For Intermediary Liability

It has been more than five years since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Shreya Singhal v Union of India. In Part 1, of this three part retrospective, we analyse the Court's decision to strike down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act ("IT Act"), 2000, and the deficits which subsist in terms of actual enforcement. Part 2 revisis the inadequacy of the Supreme Court's approach in deliberating the constitutionality of website and application blocking under the IT Act. In Part 3, we...

Issuance Of Telemedicine Practice Guidelines In India: A Long Due Piece Of Regulation

Telemedicine Practice Guidelines providing the much needed statutory cover to the practice of medicine by employing means of communication ( as opposed to in-person consultation) has been issued on March 25, 2020 ("the Guidelines) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India by way of an amendment through the addition of Regulation 3.8 titled as 'Consultation by Telemedicine'. The Guidelines are appended as Appendix 5 to the Indian Medical Council (Professional...

My Dear Judges And Politicians

I am an ordinary lawyer, with no professional aspirations and around age 65, so very vulnerable to the Coronavirus. I neither hope to live nor wish to die but were I to live I would certainly try to live a more meaningful life and were I to die I would want to make a last wish as is the custom. And my last wish would be to address Honorable Judges and Politicians of our country. I understand that despite technical advances of means of communication, the art of communication has...

Indian Pandemic Control Laws

From a 21-day curfew on 4 hours' notice and creating one of the biggest migrations in India's modern history to State's police beating and public shaming people coming out on road, a question which arises in this case is about legality of the powers exercised by the Central and State Governments. When COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is at its best and the whole world is fighting to curb its devastative effect, The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 is 123-year-old colonial legislation is helping the...

The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020: A Step Towards Ease Of Doing Business?

The Companies (Amendment) Bill has been introduced on 17th March in Lok Sabha. It was tabled by Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur. The cabinet has approved around 72 changes in the existing Companies Act. In this article we would look into how this bill is introduced with the aim of bringing ease of doing business in India. Ease of Doing Business Grand Challenge Recently, India achieved a ranking of 63 among 190 nations in World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index; it...