Articles and Updates

• Vasanth Rajasekaran - 10-08-2021

In a recent decision in South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. & Ors. v. M/s. S. Kumar's Associates AKM (JV)1, the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that mere issuance of a letter of intent would not create a binding contractual relationship amongst the parties. The Apex Court observed that where the mandatory obligations to bring the contract to life were not performed by a party, the letter of intent would not bind them. The present article briefly examines the findings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court.

• Vasanth Rajasekaran - 10-08-2021

In the recent decision of The Project Director, NHAI v. M. Hakeem and Anr., the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that a court is not empowered to modify an award under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (Arbitration Act). The present article briefly examines the findings of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the aforementioned matter.

• Rajat Radhan - 10-08-2021

While the concept of intermediaries has been on the statute book since 2000, there has lately been an increasing discourse on their responsibilities and regulation. The Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") defines an intermediary as any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits an electronic record or provides any service with respect to that record1. The definition is exhaustive in nature and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-market places and cyber cafes.

• Sawant Singh and Aditya Bhargava - 10-08-2021

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comprehensive regulatory framework for microfinance prescribes requirements such as the nature of borrowers, maximum disbursement amounts and ceilings on interest rates and other charges. However, this framework applies only to non-banking financial companies – microfinance institutions (NBFC-MFIs), which reportedly provide only about 30% of microfinance loans in India. The disparity in the regulatory framework between NBFC-MFIs and banks has led to disgruntlement among NBFC-MFIs, as a leading view is that they are in the vanguard of microfinance lending, and often do the heavy lifting in developing new markets.

• Gautam Bhatikar, Madhavi Doshi and Sanjeev Sambasivan - 05-08-2021

In a recent decision1, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal, Chennai Bench (NCLAT) held that the claims as provided in the resolution plan shall stand frozen and will be binding on the corporate debtor and its stakeholders, including the Central Government/State Government/local authorities. The NCLAT held that no person will be entitled to initiate any proceedings regarding a claim that is not part of the resolution plan approved by an adjudicating authority.