Claim Of Refund Of Advance Payment- Whether An 'Operational Debt' Under The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016

CLAIM OF REFUND OF ADVANCE PAYMENTWHETHER AN 'OPERATIONAL DEBT' UNDER THE INSOLVENCY & BANKRUPTCY CODE, 2016 Introduction Ever since the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("the Code") has come into effect, many vexed questions of law regarding the interpretation of various provisions of the Code have arisen, many of which have come to be settled by orders passed by the National Company Law Tribunals ("NCLT"), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ("NCLAT") as well as...

Divided By Borders, United By Desire To Decrypt

Divided by Borders, United by Desire to Decrypt India claims to follow suit of leading nations – introduces law that compels decryption by social media intermediaries On 25 February 2021, the Government of India notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021[1]. These Rules replace the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. While the 2011 rules were applicable only to intermediaries, the 2021...

Model Tenancy Act, 2021 – A New "Lease" Of Life For Landlords And Tenants

Model Tenancy Act, 2021 – a new "lease" of life for landlords and tenants For several decades, residential and commercial leasing operations in India have been governed by archaic State/Union territories (UTs) tenancy laws. The broad objective of these laws are to protect tenants from unfair eviction and resolve disputes between landlords and tenants. A serious drawback is that most of these laws favour the tenants, are obsolete and have not evolved with times. This has discouraged...

Karnataka High Court's Dismissal of Amazon and Flipkart's Petitions: An Opportunity Missed?

The Karnataka High Court has, on June 11, 2021[1], dismissed the writ petitions filed by Amazon Seller Services Private Limited ("Amazon") and Flipkart Internet Private Limited ("Flipkart") challenging the Competition Commission of India's (the "CCI") order issued under Section 26(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 (the "Competition Act") on January 13, 2020, directing the Director General (the "DG") to investigate certain alleged anti-competitive practices. While the Karnataka High...

Distinguishing Yourself As An Informed Investor From A Naive Investor: Financial Markets And Regulatory Awareness

An Informed Investor is often termed as a "protected" investor; a person who may claim to have an adequate understanding of the market dynamics, strategies, risks, structuring, suitability, etc. prior to investing in financial markets. An Informed Investor claims to have a good understanding of financial products such as securities, bonds, funds, currencies, commodities, deposits, and the unlimited range of financial products traded on various exchanges or platforms across ...

OTT + News ≠ Digital Media

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("New Rules") came into force on 25 February 2021, superseeding the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 ("Previous Rules") framed under the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("Act"). As the name of the New Rules suggest, it regulates intermediaries and the digital media industry. In this article, we focus on the broad framework for regulation of the digital media ...

Legal Implications And Accountability Qua Artificial Intelligence And Big Data Trends

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a latest trend in the consortium of society and technology. AI is the decision-making ability to mimic human intelligence which involves processing of big data (large amount of data) through algorithms, that are provided data inputs on the basis of which this development of intuitive learning is made possible. Thus, Big Data and Machine learning in the current scenario are very closely interrelated. India has diverse and large amounts of data...

Corporate Governance And The Case Of PNB Housing Finance

On May 31, the board of PNB Housing Finance approved a preferential issue of equity shares and warrants to certain entities belonging to the Carlyle Group, General Atlantic, Ares SSG, and Salisbusry Investments (a company controlled by Mr. Aditya Puri, the former CEO of HDFC Bank). If the preferential issue is completed, the Carlyle Group will become the company's controlling shareholder with over a 50% majority stake. Further, as required under the SEBI's Takeover Regulations, the...

UPSC Law Optional Test Series Or Answer-Writing

Answer-writing is sine qua non for succeeding in Law Optional for UPSC. Mastering the art of answer-writing for any optional under UPSC is indispensable for clearing the civil services exam. Each Optional subject has its own nuances including UPSC law optional. In this article, we are going to discuss the importance of answer-writing and test series for UPSC law optional specifically. IS IT HARD? The first thing we have to understand is that the way of writing answers in our university...

Impact Of COVID-19 On FDI Regimes: One Year Later

More than a year ago, we summarized certain changes in foreign direct investment (FDI) regimes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in countries other than India. We concluded that India could consider reviewing its FDI regime to ensure that appropriate checks were in place in respect of certain sectors. In late-April 2020, the Indian Government issued an amendment to the Indian FDI policy to "[curb] opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current COVID-19...

Should Indian Securities Law Shift Focus From Promoters To Persons In Control?

Indian securities law has focussed on regulating, holding accountable and penalizing "promoters" as a result of concentrated family-owned businesses which are largely prevalent in India. In this regard, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (the "SEBI") defines a "promoter" to include any person: (a) who has been identified as a promoter by the company in its offer documents or annual returns; (b) who has direct or indirect control over the affairs of the company whether as a...

Process Analysis Of Pre-Packs: The Next Step In The Evolution Of Insolvency Regime In India

The enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ('the Code') provided a new insolvency regime to the country in order to resolve the corporates and individuals, undergoing financial distress, in a time bound manner. Given the fact that the market for the new professions created by the Code have sufficiently matured and the processes introduced by it have adequately evolved, the Government found it feasible to explore new initiatives in order to further improve the effectiveness...