The government and the regulators in tandem have introduced a slew of coordinated measures to reduce dependence on the banking system and strengthen the Indian corporate bond market.
In a recent decision, the Karnataka High Court considered whether a Judge, other than the Judge of a High Court, is empowered to delegate the duty of examining and impounding any instrument under Section 33 of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957 (Act) to any other officer. The High Court answered the question in the negative.
The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (MB Act) was amended vide the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 (2017 Amendment). Under the 2017 Amendment, setting up a creche was made mandatory for all establishment employing 50 (fifty) or more employees. However, there was lack of clarity on the technical aspects and related requirements concerning setting up of creche and the facilities to be provided therein. The Karnataka Government on 21 July 2018 had issued the draft Karnataka Maternity (Amendment) Rules 2018 highlighting various aspects for administration of creche for comments.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued regulations dated 14 November 2018 (Ref: No. SEBI/LAD-NRO/GN/2018/46) (Amendment Regulations) further amending the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Delisting of Equity Shares) Regulations, 2009 (Delisting Regulations).
Recently, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) released a policy note titled Making Markets Work for Affordable Healthcare (Policy Note). The Policy Note asserts that the CCI, over the course of its adjudicatory experience, had observed information asymmetry and supplier-induced demand in the pharmaceutical / healthcare sector resulting in circumscribing consumer choice. The key issues and recommendations discussed in the Policy Note are set out below:
The Hon’ble Supreme Court (SC), in its recent decision in the matter of M/s Hindon Forge Pvt. Ltd. & Anr.
In the United States, settlement of securities issued pursuant to a public issue takes place within 3 days from the issue closure. Over a period, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had reduced the timeline for listing from 12 working days to 6 working days from the date of issue closure (T+6 Timeline). SEBI by its recent circular dated 1 November 2018 (Circular) has laid down the roadmap for further shortening the timeline for listing to 3 working days from the date of issue closure (T+3 Timeline), which shall be implemented in a phased manner.
On 8 November 2018, the Competition Commission of India (Commission) passed a common order (Order) to dispose of 10 sets of information (Information) filed against GAIL (India) Limited (Gail) by some of its Regasified Liquified Natural Gas customers (Informants). The Commission found that Gail did not abuse its position of dominance in terms of Section 4 of the Competition Act, 2002 (Competition Act).
In its recent decision in the matter of M/s Caravel Shipping Services Private Limited v M/s Premier Sea Foods Exim Private Limited (C.A. No.-010800-010801 of 2018 in SLP (C) Nos. 31101-31102 of 2016), the Supreme Court of India (Court) has held that the only prerequisite for an arbitration agreement is that it should be in writing, and the fact that the same is not signed by parties does not make it invalid.
On 2 November 2018, the Delhi High Court (High Court), in Christian Louboutin SAS v Nakul Bajaj and Others (Civil Suit No. 344/2018) has laid down certain guiding principles in respect of liability of e-commerce platforms as intermediaries and the ambit of ‘service’ as has been used in the definition of ‘intermediaries’ under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).
