Legal Pulse

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) wants full ratification of its merger control powers under both section 5 and 6 of the Competition Act, which has languished unapproved for months. The CCI chairman Dhanendra Kumar said at a meeting that the CCI would like to give its consent for most M&A transactions within 30 days of filing, which was only possible if the government ratified both sections 5 and 6 of the Competition Act, according to the Financial Express and other papers. Section 5 states that an Indian company with a turnover of over Rs 3,000 crore can not acquire another company without the CCI’s prior notification and approval. Section 6 voids amalgamations which adversely and appreciably affect competition within a relevant market. Already in February Kumar said he was looking forward to speedy notification of the merger control guidelines.

Kumar also added that the CCI had received 118 cases to date, of which 24 had been dismissed after finding no violation of competition law and five were in the final stage of determination.

Breaking news exclusive: Naik Paranjpe & Company has yet again successfully turned to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a Reliance film company, having secured an interim order restraining arch-nemesis Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) from allegedly directing its members to boycot Reliance MediaWorks multiplex theatres in Bangalore and the state.

The Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) appellate tribunal does not have the power to second-guess the CCI’s decisions to investigate anti-competitive behaviour, the Supreme Court held today in an “emphatic victory” for the CCI and Jindal Steel and their lawyers Amarchand Mangaldas, Economic Laws Practice (ELP) and counsel Harish Salve and Gopal Subramanium.

Yesterday's Bombay High Court decision that the tax authorities are permitted to assess Vodafone for its Indian tax liability in its acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa in 2007, means that previous and future foreign investments into India would face legal uncertainty, according to tax and corporate lawyers.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is looking into investigating the Commonwealth Games for its award of key contracts, according to the the Financial Express. Unnamed sources told the Financial Express that several contracts were awarded to private players without conducting a fair tendering process. “There are serious competition violations. We are collecting all information on the bidding process following which we will take a decision on whether to conduct a suo moto probe into it or not,” a senior CCI official told the paper, which contravened sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act 2002.

Read the full Financial Express article.

This week's The Firm asks whether we are doing too little too late about sexual harassment as the Protection Against Sexual Harassment of Women Bill still awaits enactment long after the government promised to put sexual harassment laws on the books 13 years ago. 

"It looks fishy, it smells fishy," host Menaka Doshi declared, opening this week’s episode of The Firm with a scorching observation. The burning question on the minds of panellists BMR Advisors partner Gokul Chaudhri, and FinSec Law Advisors founder Sandeep Parekh: can Sebi interfere with Vedanta’s Rs 50 per share non-compete fee paid to Cairn PLC as part of the acquisition of Cairn India?

SEBI is at it again, this time suggesting a possible merger of Indian Depository Receipts (IDRs) and delisting schemes at its 4 August board meeting.  In the words of the regulator: "Some multinational companies with listed subsidiaries in India are exploring the possibility of delisting their shares through an exchange offer." The Firm's panellists sat down and pondered possibilities.

The question on the panelists’ minds this week on CNBC-TV18’s The Firm: will the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) signal their approval of budding stock exchange MCX-SX’s capital reduction scheme by approving the company’s application to run as a full-fledged stock exchange. Menaka Doshi sat down with Vivek Gupta, Partner at BMR Advisors and Kartik Ganapathy, partner at Indus Law for some answers.

Last week's episode of CNBC-TV18's The Firm sat Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee (TRAC) members YM Deosthalee and Sourav Mallik opposite AZB & Partners' Zia Mody and Amarchand Mangaldas' Cyril Shroff to discuss some of the intended and unintended consequences of the proposed drastic overhaul of India's takeover regulations.

Friday's Mumbai Income Appellate Tax Tribunal (ITAT) ruling against Linklaters makes potentially all overseas professional services and law firms subject to income tax in India for the last six years or more if their staff visit India for 90 days in aggregate per year. The repercussions could be serious, according to Indian tax lawyers.

The government post-budget notifications to tax new services and amend taxation of existing ones have taken effect today, particularly impacting sectors such as aviation, construction and hospital services while retrospective service tax imposition on rentals of immovable property and commercial coaching could increase litigation.

India's minister of law and justice Veerappa Moily unveiled a "national litigation policy" today under which the government "must cease to be a compulsive litigant" by creating a new layer of supervisory bureaucracy, reducing appeals and reviewing all existing cases, while tightening legal panels and increasing fees of lawyers representing the government.

The revised discussion paper on the Direct Tax Code (DTC) released by the Ministry of Finance on 15 June has received positive feedback from industry players by further simplifying existing tax provision and incorporating key proposals made by stakeholders.