Legal Pulse

Compat today reduced Rs 60 crore fines but dismissed appeals in favour of Amarchand-advised Coal India.

J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Adani Power, part of the Adani business conglomerate, which obtained a favourable ruling from the power sector regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).

Olswang Singapore-based partner Jonathan Choo and associate Shaun Lee examine what happens when outsourcing contracts end – as they sometimes do - in this third deep and incisive insight in the Technology and Outsourcing Hot Spots Series.

Olswang Singapore-based partner Jonathan Choo and associate Shaun Lee examine governance and change control procedures in outsourcing contracts in this second fascinating post in their Technology and Outsourcing Hot Spots Series.

Communications minister Kapil Sibal has instructed the Information Technology (IT) department to appeal against the 14 Feb Gwalior court order blocking almost 80 web pages critical of the Arindam Chaudhary owned management institute IIPM.

Sources told the Times of India that the department of telecommunication was not made a party to the order asking the Director General of Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) to block the allegedly defamatory web pages. [TOI]

The order blocking the web pages, including one with a University Grants Commission (UGC) public notice declaring that IIPM was not a university, and others such as a tweet publishing IIPM’s financials as obtained from the registrar of companies, invited wide online-commentator outrage. [Read Medianama’s compilation of daily updates over the last week]

The American Bar Association (ABA) has ruled that foreign qualified lawyers may work as in-house lawyers in all 50 US states with limited authority.

In India in-house lawyers have to surrender state bar council registrations, meaning they can effectively work without oversight of the legal regulator. Some foreign-qualified lawyers therefore also work within companies' legal teams in India, although non-Indian lawyers are not permitted to practice in law firms or courts.

Until the ABA’s vote last week, foreign lawyers were barred from practising in-house in all but seven states. Although that rule has now been lifted, foreign qualified in-house lawyers will not be allowed to advise on US law without consulting an authorised US attorney.

The rule change was affected by Resolution 107A and 107B, two among several other resolutions passed by the ABA’s 560-member house of delegates in its mid-year meeting.

The new policy was motivated by the growing presence of multinational companies in the US, which, the ABA stressed, already had foreign lawyers practicing in the US albeit with little oversight. Authorising their registration will help to regulate them better, reasoned the body. [Law Gazette UK/Bizjournals]

Opponents argued that the resolution could pave the way for legal malpractice. Yale law school lecturer and former ABA standing committee chair Larry Fox said:

Foreign lawyers, for example, could file tax returns improperly, mishandle contracts and misunderstand domestic regulations.

Even the lawyers who have a good education engage in malpractice every day. Why should we add to the malpractice by adding to our profession people who by definition don't have an education in these matters? [Reuters]

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Authority (TDSAT) is now practically defunct, after the body’s only serving member PK Rastogi retired, as predicted in a column on Legally India in January. According to an Economic Times’ telecommunications ministry source, the appointment process for one of two members, former MTNL managing director Kuldeep Singh, has begun.

The tribunal has not had a chairman since former Supreme Court (SC) judge SB Sinha retired from the chair in November 2012. Former SC judge Cyriac Joseph, who was reportedly appointed to take the chair after Sinha, has not joined to date.

According to ET, the process of appointment was underway and the members will be announced before the month-end, although it another source told the paper that the Chief Justice of India (CJI), who takes a call on chairmans' appointments, had not yet recommended names for the position. [ET]

Delhi-based law firm Singhania & Partners’ August 2010 competition complaint against multinational software giant Microsoft, is now in the Supreme Court, with Amarchand Mangaldas advising Microsoft.

How is the TDSAT going to function without members, asks Delhi advocate Nidhi Parashar.

PK Malhotra – the last of the two present members in the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), and currently presiding over the body – was appointed as secretary of the legislative department. The other member – SSN Moorthy – is set to retire this month. [PTI]

The tribunal has had no presiding officer since ex-chairman justice Nauvdeep Kumar Sodhi’s retirement in December last year. Malhotra had been officiating as presiding officer since then.

The lack of a presiding officer had cast ambiguity over the validity of the previous year’s decisions of the SAT. [The Firm, Money Control]

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) got a new chairman in former Supreme Court judge Cyriac Joseph. Joseph who retired from the SC on 27 January after three-and-a-half years on the roster, succeeds former SC judge SB Sinha at the chair after Sinha’s retirement last month.

He is a former chief justice of Uttaranchal high court as well as Karnataka high court.

Joseph enrolled at the bar in 1968, became the senior government pleader in Kerala high court in 1979 until 1987, was Additional Advocate General in Kerala for three years from 1991, and was appointed as a permanent judge of Kerala high court for a month in 1994.

He was transferred to Delhi high court that year, and was appointed as Uttaranchal high court’s chief justice in March 2005. Next year he became chief justice of Karnataka high court. [Indian Television]

Sinha was appointed as chairman in September 2009, succeeding former SC judge Arun Kumar.

In this knowledge partnership series, Olswang Singapore-based partner Jonathan Choo and associate Shaun Lee examine the legal issues related to outsourcing contracts and the pitfalls parties should be aware of even during the pre-contractual negotiations.

CCI's director general (DG) office currently has a 40 employee deficit, with 25 people handling 30 pending investigations. The DG office which usually takes three to nine months to finish an investigation has unfilled positions since it first invited applications in July [ET]

In today’s edition of Mint: The good news for those who deal in news is that the Supreme Court decided against framing guidelines for covering so-called sub judice matters, or those before the courts.

The bad news is that by delivering what some analysts are calling an ambiguous judgement, the apex court may have well made it easier to muzzle the media and, far worse, institutionalized the process by which individuals and entities fighting cases can ensure that these aren’t covered till the order is passed.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has appointed its first formal panel of external legal advisers and six firms, with start-up law firms Advaya Legal making the cut in Mumbai, Canpisce & Co and Verus Advocates in Delhi, and Fox Mandal & Co winning the mandate to advise in the High Court of Calcutta.

Exclusive: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) rejected an amalgamation notice filed by Amarchand Mangaldas for Aditya Birla Nuvo, and AZB & Partners for retailer Pantaloon on 14 August. According to the regulator’s interpretation, the notice was premature and not in accordance with the Combination Regulations.