Legal Pulse

By Nikhil Kanekal: It’s going to be an incredibly tough future for the Subroto Roy-owned Sahara Group (also known as Sahara India Parivar) after today’s judgment by the Supreme Court of India. The court asked two group companies to return an unprecedented Rs 24,000 crores ($4.3bn) to their roughly 28 million investors, while setting the company and its directors up for possible criminal prosecution.

The judgment is a stinging indictment of the company’s practices. It is also probably the largest ever transaction ordered by an Indian court to date.

Shoot the patent lawyer? SpicyIP analyses the California jury’s “confusing” Apple v Samsung smartphone verdict that awarded Apple more than $1bn in damages. Conclusion: “The only clear winners here seem to be the patent lawyers and it is certainly a good time to be one.” Click here to read Spicy’s analysis of the verdict and what it means.

A week ago Google said it was fed up of the patent war, while one of the architects of the internet, Vint Cerf, quipped last year: “Shoot the patent lawyers”, when asked about the Next Big Thing. Any thoughts?

Amarchand Mangaldas’ Delhi office won for Coal India (CIL) yesterday in its Competition Commission of India (CCI) complaint against 10 explosives manufacturers fined and held to have engaged in anti-competitive practices.

Breaking: Fees earned by lawyers in courts or tribunals will not be subject to service tax under the Union Budget, which expanded the overall scope of service tax to everything except for a few exceptions.

The Union Budget’s plan to tax Vodafone’s Indian Hutch takeover and similar transactions retrospectively going back to 1962 is unconstitutional and would not pass scrutiny of the courts, said Dutt Menon Dunmorrsett Mumbai-based partner Fereshte Sethna, who represented Vodafone in its Rs 11 crore ($2.4bn) dispute with the tax office in the Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court.

Live: The Budget 2012 speech is kicking off at 11am and Legally India will blog it live. What do you think it holds for lawyers and clients? Hike service tax for lawyers or abolish it? Increase FDI? Vodafone, round 27? DTC news? Tinker with near-unusable LLPs? Massive tax benefits for all? Damp squib? Share your thoughts and follow our live blog.

Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and Nishith Desai Associates (NDA) analysed the legal implications of the Vodafone judgment yesterday – a decision law firms across the board commended for boosting India’s image as an investment destination, upholding the rule of law and settling many questions.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has reduced the stayed Rs 1 crore fine against Kingfisher airlines to Rs 72.5 lakh, after finding that the airline had not provided sufficient information to the Commission.

Exclusive: Mahagenco (Maharashtra State Power Generation Co) has filed before the Competition Commission of India (CCI) claiming that subsidiaries of state-run Coal India (CIL) is abusing its dominant position by supplying it with low-grade coal at inflated prices.

Breaking: The Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has carried out an undercover investigation into the “chilling effects” of new information technology laws on freedom of expression online, with six out of seven major websites removing innocent content online without proper investigation, creating a “private censorship regime”.

The Government of India’s (GOI) new consolidated foreign direct investment (FDI) policy circular effective from 1 October 2011 has de-classified instruments with options from being FDI investments and introduced other significant changes, such as increasing FDI caps in FM Radio and changes in single-brand retail trading norms.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared its fourth merger, with the Japanese Aica Kogyo Company takeover of the laminates division of the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation.

Exclusive: Singhania & Partners LLP’s appeal against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) majority decision clearing Microsoft of anti-competitive behaviour has been accepted by the appellate tribunal today, which is serving notice to the respondents.

Exclusive: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has cleared the $454m takeover of UTV by Disney today after 25 calendar days, with J Sagar Associates (JSA), AZB & Partners and Dhall Law Chambers advising.

Exclusive: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dealt with the first M&A referred to it, clearing within 18 days the proposed takeover by Reliance Industrial Infrastructure of Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company, advised by AZB & Partners and Talwar Thakore Associates respectively.

The Bombay High Court has ruled against the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS) and held that FM radio channels, hotels and discotheques which play recorded music are not liable to pay royalty to the music composers and lyricists.