Corporate Law

The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) has released a discussion paper on ‘Guidelines for Payment Gateways and Payment Aggregators’ for public comment (“Discussion Paper”). The Discussion Paper envisages payment gateways such as Paytm, Mobikwik, Bharat Bill Pay, PayUmoney etc. having to adhere to RBI guidelines. The Discussion Paper highlights the RBI’s concern for safeguarding the online experience of consumers while making payments and the role of intermediaries in conducting such transactions....

Observing that "the race between technology and the law could be termed as a hare and tortoise race - as technology gallops, the law tries to keep pace", the Delhi High Court on October 23, 2019 ruled that Indian courts can issue global takedown orders to platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter for illegal content uploaded by users. The Court also held that the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") had to be interpreted in a manner so as to ensure that judicial orders were effective and "not toothless"....

In one of its recent judgements, Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises Limited versus K.S. Infrasapce LLP and Other[1], the Supreme Court has pronounced that for an immovable property to fall under the scope of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 ("CC Act"), such immovable property must be "used exclusively" or must be considered as "being used exclusively" in trade or commerce....

India opened up its economy in 1991 and has since considerably eased foreign direct investment (FDI) norms across various sectors of the economy, with a viewpoint of liberalizing the FDI regime in the country. Fast forward to 2019 and the current government, in order to further boost the economy and FDI inflows, has approved certain amendments to the existing FDI policy ("FDI Policy") of the country....

It has been well established that proceedings under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (“the Act”) are summary in nature.The scope of enquiry in any proceedings under Section 34 of the Act has been restricted to consider whether any of the grounds mentioned in Section 34(2) or Section 13(5) or Section 16(6) are made out to set aside the award, the grounds for which are specific....

It is a fairly reasonable assumption to make that the famous or rather infamous relationship between law and morality would not apply to the commercial world of contractual arrangements. However, this is where morality clauses rear their heads to question that presumption. The morals or the morality clause, is a contractual provision in a contract or agreement that puts a restriction on certain behaviour emanating not from that person's commercial identity but from their personal life. These clauses tend to veer towards prohibiting behaviour that is frowned upon in society. ...

An application for a patent can be filed by a ‘true and first inventor’, or the inventor’s assignee. In cases where the application is filed by the assignee, the assignee is required to submit a ‘proof of right’, as per Section 7(2) of the Patents Act, 1970 (the “Act”). ...

The scope of public internet that started back in the 1980s has grown over the decades. It allows a telecom subscriber to access almost all the services required for information, education and entertainment etc. It has altogether redefined the conventional marketplace. Even personalized services, such as a taxi ride can be accessed on a person’s fingertips. This growth has also brought about a fundamental shift in other spheres including telecom and TV. Earlier, networks used to be built around specific applications, say voice, internet or Pay TV. Voice, message and video content have now been reduced to mere bytes.There has been a rapid proliferation of voice, video and Over-the-top ("OTT") application services being delivered over networks....

Contractual lease provisions are freely negotiable in India. In the absence of a contract to the contrary, the Transfer of Property Act 1882 ("TOPA") provides for certain rights and liabilities which govern the relationship between the landlord and the lessee.A lease deed is typically drafted by the landlord and thus, may contain several conditions that favour the landlord. It is however important to ensure that an effective commercial lease deed protects the rights of the lessee as well....