Supreme Court

The Supreme Court directed the Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL) to pay Rs 1100 crores as refund to L&T subsidiary Nabha Power (NPL), relieving NPL from a potential loss of Rs 8000 crore over the next 22 years.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) appeal against the AK Balaji judgment of the Madras high court against 31 foreign law firms has been tentatively scheduled to finally happen on 20 November 2017, with the Supreme Court registry giving the green light in a 3 October order (see below), noting that all defects in service had now been cured.

The Supreme Court’s collegium of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and the next senior-most judges, justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, have begun to post recommendations for elevations and other business on a new ‘resolutions of the collegium’ section of its website according to minutes dated 3 October.

Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan (LKS) equity partner of 17 years S Seetharaman left the firm today to pursue other interests while continuing to practise independently.

RDA Legal has shut down and its founder, NUJS 2006 alumnus Rohit Das, is now focusing solely on counsel practice.

"The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the bar association of the Gurgaon district courts for passing a resolution calling upon lawyers to not defend the accused in the murder of a sevenyear-old student at Ryan International School. A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, warned local lawyers against preventing the advocates of the accused from appearing in court and defending them," reported the Economic Times.

T&T Law managing partner Rohit Tandon is back in jail, having surrendered to the authorities on 6 September after his short interim bail on compassionate grounds was not extended by the Supreme Court.

A judge of the Punjab & Haryana high court stayed the result of the Haryana Judicial Services (HJS) Exam after allegations of cheating against the topper of the exam. Immediately after his order the case was taken away from him, for unexplained reasons, at the request of the recruitment committee of the high court, reported Live Law.

Justice Dipak Misra took oath today as the 45th Chief Justice of India (CJI), succeeding CJI JS Khehar. Misra's suitability for India's highest judicial office was questioned before CJI Khehar and in the media, since last year when his name surfaced in allegations of misrepresentation from 1979.

The commerce and law ministries are unequivocally in favour of opening up the legal sector to foreign lawyers as soon as possible, reveal the full minutes of the July meeting between ministries and lawyers, though the details of how this will be done remain uncertain.

Supreme Court advocate on record (AOR) _ Nandini Gore_ has complained about the state of the ladies restroom in the Jharkhand high court, in a letter to the HC's chief justice DN Patel, which was followed by a public interest litigation by the HCs bar association citing Gore's letter, reported The Telegraph.

Following our exclusive report of a ministry meeting with lawyer stakeholders on 28 July, at which prime minister Narendra Modi's intention was made clear to allow foreign law firms to enter on a “top priority” basis, ET NOW has re-reported the development and interviewed two eminent senior counsel - Harish Salve and Gopal Jain - who both spoke out in favour of the prompt entry of foreign law firms.

The Bar Council of India (BCI) is set to meet the government tomorrow to discuss the new draft rules that will enable the entry of foreign law firms into India, reported The Lawyer (full article requires free registration) adding that the Society of Indian Law Firms (SILF) has already met with its members as a precursor to what SILF called the “inevitable and imminent” opening up of the legal services sector.

Yes, the Indian tax structure has all along been very complex and unpredictable owing to a host of factors, such as a multiplicity of taxes, divergent interpretations, the absence of a coherent administrative set-up coupled with unrealistic revenue targets, and a propensity to resort to amendments (including retrospective amendments), by successive governments. In this decade, for foreign investors, the “indirect transfer” of shares case of Vodafone symbolizes all that has been wrong with the Indian tax system. Despite winning at the Supreme Court, the Government in 2012 retrospectively amended the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”) to overcome the Supreme Court ruling and to tax indirect transfers involving foreign companies/investors.

Despite the progress, there are still quite a few structures which, though common abroad, are difficult to implement in India. A traditional leverage buy-out, which might otherwise seem fairly straightforward, is not permissible under the Indian legal regime. To make a leverage buy-out work, acquirers need to demonstrate an appetite for innovative structures.

One of the fundamentals of a good law is that it must lead to adequate compliance by the target citizenry that it seeks to govern. The prerequisite for such compliance includes, but is not limited to, the temporal relevance that it holds in the society. Unless the discourse of law adjusts itself organically to the ever increasing and changing needs of the society, it would be relegated as an anachronism. This holds much more relevance in a dynamic information technology driven society that we are a part of today.

One of the oldest jokes told by foreign law firm lawyers who often visit India begins with a question about when they think the market will liberalise. “Two years,” the answer will be. “It’s always been two years.”

Over the past couple of years, India has registered rapid economic growth, with the GDP growing 7.6% in the last fiscal year. The country’s economic profile has also witnessed a dramatic shift over a long period from rural –based agricultural production to urban economic activities, and from low-value manufacturing to high-value services. Indeed, the economy is on track to maintain its current growth rate for the rest of this year too. Though economic activity is buoyant, the country still has a long way to go. The Modi government must capitalize on the current economic momentum and use it to accelerate its reform agenda.

The government has moved for an early hearing in the Bar Council of India (BCI) AK Balaji appeal in the Supreme Court, reported Bar & Bench.

The CCI has established itself as an efficient and effective regulator.