Ergo Update

After days of prolonging uncertainty amongst telecom service providers (TSPs) with regard to the use of Aadhaar based e-KYC for verification and reverification of subscriber in wake of the Supreme Court (SC)’s judgment dated 26 September 2018 (Aadhaar Judgment), the Department of Telecommunications, Government of India (DoT) has issued a notification on 26 October 2018 (Notification) to put this issue to rest.

The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has issued a circular ref. IRDAI/NL/CIR//MOTP/170/10/2018 dated 9 October 2018 (Revised Circular) providing certain clarifications regarding the implementation of Compulsory Personal Accident (CPA) insurance for owner drivers. The Revised Circular has been issued in light of complaints and communications received from various stakeholders regarding certain aspects of implementation of CPA insurance for owner drivers, the background to which is elucidated below.

On 11 October 2018, the Supreme Court (Court) vide its judgment in B.K. Educational Services Private Limited v Parag Gupta and Associates (Civil Appeal No. 23988 of 2017) clarified the applicability of Limitation Act, 1963 (Limitation Act) to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code).

The state of Odisha has joined the growing list of states to have introduced plastic ban in some form. An overwhelming 23 states in India thus have some form of regulation on the use of plastic. In the wake of wide-spread outcry pursuant to the Maharashtra Plastic Ban Notification which came in March 2018 and was subsequently amended twice as late as July, Odisha joins Tamil Nadu in implementing regulations on manufacture and usage of plastic.

On 11 October 2018, the Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court), in Vedanta Limited v Shenzen Shandong Nuclear Power Construction Company Limited (Civil Appeal No. 10394 of 2018), laid down the guidelines to be followed by arbitrators while awarding interest in an arbitral award pursuant to an international commercial arbitration. These guidelines take into account international best practices and the law of the seat of arbitration. Importantly, the Supreme Court has provided that such interest cannot be penal in nature, despite the interest awarded being a form of reparations.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in its meeting held on 18 August 2018, besides reviewing the total expense ratio of the mutual fund schemes and agreeing to introduce united payment interface with ASBA facility for public issues, has also paved the way for further stimulating the bond market by removing the requirement of having  1% security deposit for public issue of debt securities and laying down the framework for enhanced market borrowings by large corporates through the bond route.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) amended the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016 (CIRP Regulations) for the fourth time in 2018 on 5 October 2018 through the IBBI (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) (Fourth Amendment) Regulations, 2018 (Amendment Regulations).

In a long awaited move, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified the provisions of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 (CA Amendment Act), relating to managerial remuneration, which are now in force with effect from 12 September 2018. By way of a notification, the amendments to Section 197 and Schedule V of the Companies Act, 2013 (CA 2013) have been brought into effect. More importantly, the requirement of seeking approval of the Central Government for the payment of managerial remuneration in excess of limits stipulated for public companies has now been removed.

A division bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (the Court), consisting of Mr. Justice N V Ramana and Ms. Justice S Abdul Nazeer in the case of P Radha Bai Vs P Ashok Kumar (Civil Appeal no 7710-7713 of 2013), has reiterated the strict interpretation of limitation prescribed under Section 34(3) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 (Arbitration Act).

A three-judge Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (Supreme Court) has by its judgment dated 25 September 2018 in Union of India v Hardy Exploration and Production (India) Inc, (Civil Appeal No. 4628 of 2018) examined whether a determination as postulated in Article 31 of the UNCITRAL Model Law had taken place in the instant Award to determine what the seat of the arbitration was.