General Corporate Advisory

The Apex Court, vide its order dated December 15, 2020, in Steel Authority of India Limited vs. Raghbendra Singh & Ors , propounded that there does not exist any constraint regarding withholding an employee’s gratuity against the recovery of dues from such employee, including penal rent, which in the instant case pertained to the overstay by the employee in official company provided accommodation. ......

Restrictions on competition through prohibitive non-compete clauses have become par for the course in most commercial agreements. These clauses are designed to protect the business interests of the party or parties, as the case may be, and corporates do indeed get very creative and the non-compete often becomes the subject of a thorough and substantial redline, especially between businesses involved in a similar vertical. ......

While the Code on Wages, 2019 (hereinafter referred to as “the Code”) received Presidential assent on August 08 2019 , the Government was yet to notify the effective date of the Code coming into force. The Code has unified and subsumed four different acts, namely the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, the Minimum Wages Act, 1948, the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965 and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976 (collectively “Existing Legislation”). ......

In over-ruling its own decision in the 2017 case of Himangni Enterprises v. Kamaljeet Singh Ahluwalia , the Supreme Court of India ("Court") has held in the recent case of Vidya Drolia v. Durga Trading Corporation that landlord-tenant disputes governed by the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 ("TP Act") are arbitrable as they are not actions in rem but pertain to subordinate rights in personam that arise from rights in rem. ......

On November 04, 2020, the President of India promulgated the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 (“Ordinance”). The Ordinance was promulgated to ensure that all parties get an opportunity to seek unconditional stay of enforcement of arbitral awards where the underlying arbitration agreement or contract or making of the arbitral award are induced by fraud or corruption. ......

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on food services and systems worldwide have been unprecedented. No aspect of food systems has been left unaffected, be it in a surge of demand for a specific service or product or new and unexpected challenges in business models and operations. ......

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 ("FCRA") was enacted with the mandate of regulating the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution and prohibiting acceptance of the same for any activities detrimental to the national interest . The FCRA is primarily utilised to aid the activities of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). ......

On November 09, 2020, the Central Government issued a notification bringing digital/online media platforms under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting ("MIB"). While there exists a legal framework and judicial pronouncements in respect of electronic and print media, there was no equivalent in respect of digital media. ......

In 2019 Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings (“Amazon”) had acquired a 49% stake in Future Coupons Limited (“Future Coupon”). As part of the transaction, Amazon was provided a ‘call’ option, which enabled it to exercise the option of acquiring all or part of Future Coupon’s promoter, Future Retail Limited’s (“Future Retail”) shareholding in the company (Future Coupon and Future Retail are hereinafter collectively referred to as the “Future Group”). ......