MTN
Bombay lawyer Sanjay Kothari wins Rs 9 refund from telephone service provider MTNL in the Supreme Court, 18 years after he first filed a suit against the company for wrongfully charging extra service tax in his phone bill.
He then files a contempt petition against MTNL for failure to follow a Bombay HC order from 2010 and refund the extra tax charged by it to other customers. An RTI application filed by him reveals that MTNL has to refund Rs 9 each to 1.8 lakh customers.
"It was a matter of principle," says Kothari adding, "MTNL is a public body and if they wrongly charge consumers, they must refund it. Otherwise, it is a case of unjust enrichment." [TOI]
Many have welcomed this three-day working week, shortened by Monday's Dusshera festival and Mahatma Gandhi's birthday today.
More inside on Hemant Sahai - Paras Kuhad and IPO merger madness.
Platinum Partners has joined the team of legal advisers on the MTN – Bharti Airtel merger talks alongside four other firms on what could be India's largest cross-border deal to date with a value of around $23bn (Rs 110,000 crore).
AZB & Partners has bagged the biggest ever Indian cross-border merger mandate, advising Bharti Airtel on its revived $23bn bid to take over South African telecoms major MTN.
London international Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will be advising long-standing client MTN but the company's Indian counsel has not yet been chosen.
AZB Delhi partners Ajay Bahl (pictured) and Gautam Saha are understood to be leading the legal team for Bharti, having won the instruction off the back of previous work done by the firm for the company.