No Service Tax Payable On Compensation Received On Cancellation Of Coal Blocks

TLC Legal is pleased to share with you a recent decision of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal ("CESTAT"), Kolkata, holding that "compensation" paid to a prior allottee on cancellation of Coal block is not a consideration for tolerating the act of such cancellation and therefore, no Service tax is payable on the same. The facts relevant to the said case are that the coal block allocated to the Appellant company, Jindal Steel & Power Limited, (the "Company") were...

Every Transfer Or Sale Is Not 'Actual Sale': Clarifies Supreme Court

Recently, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of PTC India Financial Services Limited (hereinafter referred as PIFSL) v. Venkateswarlu Karu & Ors. (Civil Appeal No.5443 of 2019 has held that Contract Act does not conceive of sale of the pawn to self and consequently, the pawnor's right to redemption in terms of Section 177[1] of the Contract Act survives till 'actual sale'. Facts: PTC India Financial Services Limited (PIFSL) by way of a Bridge Loan Agreement dated 10th March...

The Unending Saga Of The Seat Of The Arbitration: Delhi High Court Disregards The Seat Of Arbitration And Favours The Exclusive Jurisdiction Clause In A Domestic Arbitration

The Delhi High Court recently in Hunch Circle Private Limited ("HCPL") v. Future Times Technology India Private Limited[1] ("FTTIPL") ("Hunch Circle") rejected an application for appointment of an arbitrator citing lack of jurisdiction, despite the agreement categorically specifying the seat of arbitration as Delhi. CONTRACTUAL PROVISIONS: In the present case, Clause 8.1 of the contract conferred exclusive jurisdiction for matters arising out of the agreement (subject to the ...

Operationalizing FDI Reforms And Easing Market Entry Conditions In The Telecom Sector

The Indian telecom sector has seen significant reform in recent times to improve sectoral health and increase ease of doing business. To attract investment, foreign investors can now invest up to 100% in any local Indian company without government approval. This marks a significant shift from the era of government approval for any investments above the 49% threshold. Licensing conditions have also recently been amended to enable use of private satellite systems (including foreign...

Maintainability Of Writ Petition Against A Party That Ceases To Be "State"

It is a well- known fact that the Government of India is the biggest litigant in the country. Whether through its ministries, departments or state-owned undertakings, the government accounts for nearly 50% of all pending cases in India according to a recent speech made by the Chief Justice of India. While arbitration or commercial civil litigation is the available remedy in case of contractual disputes with the government bodies, the individuals or the corporations take the route of...

Dispute Of Jurisdictions

The present article is to encapsulate the position of law with respect to the question of jurisdiction/place/venue arising in contractual disputes having Arbitration Clauses. It is not uncommon and rather is considered to be a fancy to have the Arbitration clause in the Contracts for the Adjudication of disputes. However, on many occasions it seen that parties entering into such Contracts/Agreements are not wary of the consequences resulting out of such clauses and even to an extent...

Dynamic Injunctions In India

Usually, an injunction can only be issued in respect of acts done by the person against whom it is sought to be enforced. However, in dealing with digital piracy online, standard civil injunctions may be considered insufficient to provide relief. A major problem is that once a party obtains an injunction against specific websites, the erring websites can easily circumvent such injunctions by creating "mirror" websites which would have different URLs. If an Internet Service Provider were...

Statelessness: A Man Made Malaise

"…Citizenship is man's basic right for it is nothing less than the right to have rights. Remove this priceless possession and there remains a stateless person, disgraced and degraded in the eyes of his countrymen…" ~Earl Warren Citizenship is associated majorly with political privileges and that of being able to belong. In an ever-evolving world and with politically organized societies, being left-out can be frightfully disturbing, for it brings along generational ...

Relevance Of Seat In Conferring Jurisdiction To Courts In Domestic Arbitration

Until the judgment was passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the matter of Bharat Aluminum Company v. KAISER Aluminum[1] ("Balco"), it was almost a settled position that place of arbitration proceedings does not confer any jurisdiction on courts to adjudicate upon matters arising out of or in relating to arbitration proceedings. Post Balco, there was a shift in the aforesaid thinking and the place of arbitration was recognized as one of the important factors conferring jurisdiction on the...

Shreya Singhal Judgment: Safeguarding the Future of Internet Freedom

On 24 March 2015 the Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict in Shreya Singhal v Union of India ("Shreya Singhal"). At the time most commentators focused on Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act"), which the court struck down for being ultra vires the fundamental right to free speech. Less appreciated were the court's views concerning two other Sections of the IT Act – Section 69A (along with Blocking Rules) and Section 79 (along with Intermediaries Guidelines)....

CCI's Investigation Against Debenture Trustee's Unit Of Banks – A Case Of Concurrent Jurisdiction

The Competition Commission of India's (CCI) recent investigation into the Trustee Association of India (TAI) and debenture trustee units of State Bank of India, Axis Bank and IDBI Bank for collusion in respect of charging high fees for issuing debt and due-diligence checks has raised jurisdictional conflicts over the sectoral regulator -SEBI, and the market regulator - CCI. The CCI, in its prima facie confidential order, noted that the TAI and SBICAP Trustee Company Ltd, Axis Trustee...

Tracing The Evolution Of The Law Since MTNL V. Canara Bank

In November, 2019, in our paper titled, 'Charting the Shifting Paradigms of Binding Non-Signatories to an Arbitration', we had analysed the issue, whether a party who was not a signatory to an arbitration agreement could also be bound by such an agreement?In the aforesaid paper, we had traced the evolution of the law in the Indian context and demonstrated how the dictum in Sukanya Holdings Private Limited v. Jayesh H. Pandya, enumerating that, bifurcation of causes of action was...