In an erudite judgment by Mr. Justice G.S. Patel, the Bombay High Court in Jayanand Jayant Salgaonkar vs. Jayashree Jayant Salgaonkar has held that a nominee of shares and securities of a company merely holds the securities in trust, and as a fiduciary on behalf of any claimants under the laws of succession.
Read MoreArbitration proceedings arising from contracts with government departments are more often than not, a quagmire of inordinate delays, huge costs and frequent visits to the court seeking intervention. The Supreme Court of India, in a recently reported decision in Union of India and others vs. Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation Limited (2015) 2 SCC 52 has taken the government to task and held that inordinate delays in conducting arbitration proceedings and the inability of the tribunal to perform its functions are grounds for termination of mandate of the arbitral tribunal.
Read MoreThe Supreme Court of India, in what is sure to go down as an historic decision in Shreya Singhal vs. Union of India Writ Petition (Criminal) No 167 of 2012 (and various connected proceedings) has struck down the notorious Section 66-A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (the IT Act) as being violative of the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution of India (the Constitution). Much praise has been heaped on India's top court, and the decision has been lauded as being a step in the right direction towards preserving the Internet freedom of the citizens of India.
Read MoreUnlike jurisdictions such as Singapore, India did not (until very recently) have differentiated licensing for banks, i.e. granting licences for conducting a specific line of banking business. The prevalence of universal banking licences coupled with the burden of fulfilling increasingly stringent prudential norms meant that banks that received licences rarely ventured outside Indian cities which were their main profit centres. Consequently, the avowed goal of successive central governments to make basic banking services available to all citizens was not fulfilled.
Read MoreThe master circular on wilful defaulters issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defines a "wilful default" as occurring when: a "unit" defaults in its payment/repayment obligations to a lender even though it has the capacity to make such payments; a unit defaults in its payment/repayment obligations to a lender
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