Corporate Law

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”). ......

The Social Security Code, 2020 ("SS Code") has been passed by both houses of the Parliament and received Presidential assent on September 28, 2020. The SS Code has been enacted to amend and consolidate the laws relating to social security with the goal to extend social security to all employees and workers either in the organised or unorganised or any other sectors. ......

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 ("OSH Code") received the President's assent on September 28, 2020 along with two other codes, all of which are yet to be notified by the Government. The OSH Code has subsumed several key pieces of legislation on the working conditions of labour and consolidated it into one comprehensive act, including, inter alia, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970, the Factories Act, 1948, etc. ......

On September 28, 2020, three new labour law codes namely, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 ("Codes"), received the President’s assent. ......

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been a soft law in most countries and is considered voluntary, self-regulated and beyond the scope of legislation. The concept of CSR is usually associated with companies voluntarily undertaking activities to achieve social and environmental objectives during the course of their daily business operations. ......

The scope of Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“Act”) is very broad. The Section empowers the Court to grant various “interim measures of protection” including orders for securing the amount in dispute, preservation of property, interim injunctions and appointment of receivers. The Section also empowers the Court to grant such other interim measure of protection “as may appear to the court to be just and convenient”. ......

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. ......