Corporate Law

McDonalds, Subway, Pizza Hut, KFC, Domino's Pizza, and The Hard Rock Café - iconic brands, household names but above all, franchise behemoths. These franchises have made inroads to the farthest corners of the planet, from the barbed wire surrounding the single McDonalds in Cuba, Guantanamo Bay to Dominos’ Almond Citrus Seafood pizza in Vietnam. ......

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 recent years, the Government has facilitated ease of doing business in India, and amongst the flurry of measures aimed at projecting a globally 'open for business' image have been the amendments introduced to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 ("Act"), through the Finance Act, 2019 ("Finance 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. ......

How many times have you resorted to tweeting or posting on Facebook, trying to grab the attention of a particular seller or brand for an online shopping transaction gone wrong? The newly notified Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 ("Rules") that were notified on July 23rd, 2020 may just be the answer to your troubles. These Rules, which have been issued pursuant to the enactment of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 ("Act"), lay down stricter, tougher requirements for e-commerce entities/ electronic retailers to follow. ......

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....