“Can Slogans/Tag Lines Be Copyrighted In India Or Abroad?”

Many brands, during business, compose and develop phrases or catchy combination of words with a view to create a lasting impression in the minds of the consumers, to augment popularity of their goods and/or services. These phrases essentially constitute of a slogan or tagline associated with the said product or service and are used for the purposes of advertising or expanding brand identification, as well as improvement of product/service sales, e.g., on coming across the phrase, “The...

Antrix-Devas Dispute: Will The Anti-Arbitration Injunction Order Turn The Chain Of Events In Favour Of India In The New BIT Arbitration

Recently, the Indian government achieved a major victory in its third treaty arbitration dispute with Devas Multimedia, as the Supreme Court of Mauritius barred Devas from proceeding with its latest arbitration proceedings against India. Judge Prameeta Goordyal-Chittoo issued the interim order on 12th January 2022, prohibiting the three Mauritius-based Devas investors from proceeding with their UNCITRAL arbitration under the India-Mauritius bilateral investment treaty.[1] In other words...

Trade Union Recognition Under The Industrial Relations Code,2020, Needs Introspection

According to the International Labour Organization , collective bargaining can be defined as “the key means through which employers and their organizations and trade unions can establish fair wages and working conditions.” Though the Indian Constitution doesn’t explicitly provide for a fundamental right of collective bargaining, the Supreme Court held in All India Bank Employees vs National Industrial Tribunal that the right to form a union comes under the ambit of the right to form an...

Protection Of Minority Shareholders And Related Party Transactions

The Company is an artificial entity incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013[1] (hereinafter, ‘Company Act’), and conducts its affairs through its board of directors who owe a duty to take care towards all the stakeholders of the company and to conduct the affairs of the company in a neutral and unbiased manner. Shareholders of a Company can be in broad terms divided into majority shareholders and minority shareholders. Majority shareholders are those who have more than 51% or more...

Section 27 Of The Evidence Act Re-Visited In The Wake Of Supreme Court Judgement In “Ramanand @ Nandlal Bharti”

Any discussion on Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 will be incomplete without reference to Sections 25 and 26. Section 25 of the Evidence Act prohibits proof of “confession” made to a police officer by an accused person. Section 26 interdicts proof of a “confession” made by an accused person while he is in the custody of a police officer. Section 27 which is in the form of a “proviso” to Sections 25 and 26, reads as follows:-“27: How much of information received from accused may be...

Socialism And Stock Market Meet At Social Stock Exchange

The Hon’ble Finance Minister, as part of the Budget Speech for the Financial Year 2019 -2020 had proposed to initiate steps towards creating a Social Stock exchange in India, under the regulatory ambit of Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”), for listing of social enterprises and voluntary organizations. In the budget speech, the Hon’ble Finance Minister said: “It is time to take our capital markets closer to the masses and meet various social welfare objectives related to...

Valentine’s Day : Right to Love & Indian Supreme Court

Valentine’s Day is upon us again. It is a holiday of mysterious provenance but has come to widely represent a festival of love and devotion (not to mention, consumerism) that is celebrated and dreaded in equal measure. Whether you have a significant other, are (un)happily unattached, think Valentine’s Day is nothing more than a grotesque capitalistic spectacle, or rail against the ‘dazzle of western civilisation’, there is no escaping the fourteenth of February, and all the associated...

Justice S.Abdul Nazeer’s Appointment As The Governor Without A Cooling-Off Period Brings It Under Scrutiny

The news that the former Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, who retired on January 4, has been appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh, should cause concern to all those who value judicial accountability and reputation.Although it is not the first time that a former Judge of the Supreme Court has been appointed as the Governor of a state, this is the first time that a former Judge of the Supreme Court has been appointed so soon after his or her retirement. Justice S.Fazl...

India’s Environment Laws Need Stronger Implementation

Those examining the effectiveness of India’s environmental laws are often troubled by its “implementation curse”. While the legislature has time and again promulgated laws and laid down extensive guidelines to ensure protection of the environment from capitalistic exploitation, there seems to be a massive failure on part of the Executive to strictly enforce these environmental laws and guidelines. Resultantly, the issue often falls within the domain of an overburdened Judiciary to ensure...

Brave Lawyer Who Sacrificed His Life For Innocents : Remembering Shahid Azmi On His 13th Death Anniversary

"I’ve died a hundred times and if death did come knocking, I would look it in the eye", said Late Shahid Azmi, who was shot dead on this day in 2010 in his chamber. In his practice of about seven years, Azmi fought numerous cases and represented those whom he believed were wrongly accused in several high-profile “terror cases” in Mumbai. In his short span of around seven years, Azmi got around 17 acquittals, quite a remarkable number in his short span of practice, considering the delay...

In Anna Mathew, the Supreme Court Did Not Follow Its Own Precedents

In its reasons for rejecting on February 7, the petitions seeking ex parte injunction against the swearing-in of Justice L.C. Victoria Gowri as a Judge of the Madras High Court, the Supreme Court’s two judge bench, comprising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice B.R.Gavai, has on Friday, rejected the argument of the petitioners that the facts were not known and considered by the Collegium. The bench inferred this from the conduct of the Collegium of the High Court and the Supreme Court,...

Secured Creditors Vis-À-Vis Debt Recovery: A Positive Step

The creation of statutory charges and the subsequent recovery process initiated by the tax department has often clashed with the recovery mechanisms used by secured creditors like banks under the Securitization andReconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act,2002 (“SARFAESI”) and Recovery of Debts Due toBanks and Financial Institutions Act, 1993 (“RDBA”). The question that lies at the heart of these disputes is which one of the two, the statutory dues or the...