Corporate Law

It is safe to say that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 ("IBC" or "Code") and the regime it has spawned, has effected a complete turnaround in the way insolvency and liquidation proceedings were dealt with in India. The IBC has quickly become the preferred route for creditors and debtors alike, with stakeholders lauding the efficiency of the Code. ......

On January 22, 2021, the Government of India brought into effect the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Amendment Rules, 2021 (“Rules”). The Rules amended the exiting Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 (“Existing Rules”). ......

Lord Macaulay (British Member of Parliament) once called the media “the fourth pillar of democracy”. However, as evident by the Sushant Singh Rajput (“SSR”) media trial of 2020, television media seems to be the judge, jury and executioner of this democracy. ......

The law relating to the issue of injunction in civil suits is laid down in the Specific Relief Act, 1963 and the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The grant of perpetual injunctions is regulated by the Specific Relief Act while grant of temporary or interlocutory injunctions, which are simply intended to preserve the status quo pending the decision, are regulated by the Code of Civil Procedure. ......

In the recent case of Sanjeev Mishra vs. Bank of Baroda , the Rajasthan High Court ("Court") has widened the scope of the term ‘workplace harassment’ to include online harassment. In this case, a complaint of sexual harassment was lodged against another employee working in a different State of the same bank. ......

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. ......