General Corporate Advisory

With the addition of more startups every year, India has developed and is witnessing one of the largest startup ecosystems in the world. While, the number of startups is on a continuous and stark rise, in May 2020, Nasscom was seen as reporting – “COVID 19 Impact – 9 out of 10 Startups Bleeding in India”. Majority of startups in India, are bleeding more so than ever before due to the grim economic condition of the country thanks to COVID-19. ......

The recent months have amply shown us the importance of developing and maintaining healthcare infrastructure, whether digital or physical. Each day has seen us critically scan the statistics to try and understand the impact of the novel coronavirus ("Covid 19") on our towns and cities. The Government, in its turn, launched several apps and services such as Aarogya Setu, to control and monitor the spread of the disease. ......

In a recent order issued by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal ("NCLAT") in the case of Sushil Ansal Vs. Ashok Tripathi , the NCLAT has held that a decree-holder cannot be treated as a financial creditor for the purpose of triggering insolvency proceedings against a company. ......

Criminal contempt has been recognized as the action of publishing any matter including by words, spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise, or any other act which (i) scandalises or tends to or lowers or tends to, the authority of any court; (ii) prejudices or interferes with due course of judicial proceedings; or (iii) interferes or obstructs the administration of justice in any other manner1. Criminal contempt is considered to create distrust in the popular mind and impair the confidence of the people in the courts, hence, the law has been put in place to protect the legitimacy and authority of the court. ......

In the light of disruptions caused by outbreak of Covid-19, the Government of India has announced a slew of measures in the past few months. One such significant measure is the Ministry of Finance’s proposal to decriminalize thirty-nine minor economic offences including decriminalization of offence of dishonour of cheques under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (“NI Act”). ......

In India, investment advisers ("IAs") are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Investment Advisers) Regulations, 2013 ("Principal Regulations"). The Principal Regulations inter alia specify conditions for registration, certification, capital adequacy, risk profiling and suitability, disclosures to be made, code of conduct, records to be maintained, manner of conducting inspection etc. with respect to IAs. ......

Arbitration that was once supposed to be the panacea for the woes of litigation, has now become complex and expensive due to several factors, such as ‘multiplicity’ of tribunals, awards, references and challenges arising among the same parties, contracts or series of contracts. Multiple arbitrations before different tribunals has led to the increase in “multiplicity of arbitral tribunals”. ......

Amidst the clamour of “data is the new oil” and “data is the new currency”, the Indian government is now looking to regulate the collection, storage, access and usage of personal as well as non-personal data. There are concerns that the Indian government as well as authorities all over the world are struggling to resolve. ......

Time and again the question has come before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India ("Supreme Court") on how to determine whether a person is an employee or not. Through various judgments the Supreme Court has laid out the tests to determine whether a person could be said to be in the employ of the employer....