A Round-table Discussion and Workshop on “Addressing and Eliminating Workplace Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Corporate India” is being organized by Kochhar & Co., one of the leading and largest corporate law firms in India with its presence in the six prominent Indian cites of New Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Bangalore, Chennai (Madras), Gurgaon and Hyderabad, and two overseas offices in the United States (in Atlanta, Georgia) and in Singapore.; and V.V. Giri National Labour Institute on March 26, 2010. The Round-Table Discussion will involve representatives of major corporates and key policy makers from the government and civil society who will discuss the issues and challenges being faced by them and how they need to be addressed. The workshop aims to focus on the issue of gender discrimination at work from a corporate perspective and in particular shall, through a case study practical training approach, educate corporate employers on steps that can be taken to improve gender management, develop gender sensitization amongst employees, adopt gender equitable policies and achieve compliance under the law governing sexual harassment and discrimination in India. The workshop will also provide awareness of legal options in handling various issues faced by corporate management.

Luthra & Luthra Law Offices bagged the award of the winner of the Corporate Intl Magazine practice award for ‘Best Law Firm in India for Banking & Finance Legal work 2009’. In addition, Luthra & Luthra added several other feathers in their cap during the end of 2009. Mr. G R Bhatia, Partner at Luthra & Luthra Law Offices & Head of Competition Law Practice, won Second Prize in Legal Discipline under the Best Articles Awards Scheme of Chartered Secretary for his article “Public Procurement & the Role of the Competition Commission of India” published in April, 2008 Issue of Chartered Secretary. The Screening Panel was chaired by Justice Dr. S. Murlidhar, Hon’ble Judge of High Court of Delhi’. Also, the Cairn- SBI deal won the ‘Deal of the Year’ award from PFI magazine. Luthra & Luthra Law Offices represented Cairn in the US$ 850 million facility for development of oil blocks in Rajasthan. Vijay Sondhi, Senior Partner, Luthra & Luthra won the recently conducted Delhi Bar Council Elections where he got 22nd position thereby becoming the only lawyer from a law firm to win the said elections.

Kochhar & Co. has recently pioneered a specialized Workplace Discrimination and Sexual Harassment practice. Rapidly evolving harassment laws in India have cast several obligations on Indian employers. With the launch of the Workplace Discrimination and Sexual Harassment practice desk, Kochhar & Co. has become the first law firm in India to recognize and address this requirement in a comprehensive and specialized manner. The Workplace Discrimination and Sexual Harassment practice desk offers a very wide range of services which include, amongst other things, conducting gender audits, advising on legal compliances, drafting anti-harassment and discrimination workplace policies, setting up organizational complaint committees and providing litigation support to clients in various sectors. In Kochhar & Co.'s Delhi and Gurgaon offices, which cater to the legal needs of northern India, the Workplace Discrimination and Sexual Harassment practice desk would be headed by Devika Singh while in sourthern India, this practice desk would be headed by Shanthala Rao who is a partner in Kochhar & Co.'s Bangalore office.

Bangalore-headquartered firm Universal Legal has opened a Mumbai office with one partner and two associates. Bangalore corporate partner Sharanya G will now head the new office which shall be focusing mainly on corporate work. The firm has a close best friend relationship with US-based The Chugh Firm.

The legal head of HUL, Ashok Gupta has joined the Aditya Birla Group as the new group legal counsel and chief legal officer. Gupta would join the group in March 2010 as the chief legal officer, a post which was lying vacant for quite some time.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (“DIPP”) in a bid to continue the efforts to revise and streamline the foreign investment policy of the country, has proposed to classify a joint venture which has 50% foreign investment as a foreign owned Indian entity. In a formal press note that is expected in this regard, the DIPP seems set to clarify that the foreign investor will be required to divest at least 0.5% of the joint venture in favor of the Indian partner to be re-classified as an Indian owned entity. If a 50:50 joint venture company is categorized as a foreign owned Indian entity, then under the 2009 Press Notes downstream investments and sectors in which investments are made will be subject to foreign investment restrictions. On the contrary, such restrictions are not applicable to an Indian owned entity.

The Coca Cola Company has won the legal battle against Bisleri International with the Delhi High Court refraining Bisleri from using Maaza brand name in India. Bisleri sold the Maaza trademark to The Coca Cola Company in 1993, but it retained the rights for overseas markets. Bisleri accused Coca-Cola of registering the trademark outside India and Coke alleged that Bisleri continued to use Maaza name in India. Coke also accused Bisleri of allowing third parties to make use of the formulation for making the mango drink and sell it under different names which Bisleri had denied.

Property received as gifts from non-relatives on or after October 1 2009 will attract income-tax in the hands of the donee. Any person who receives a property as gift on or after October 1 must pay the income-tax due on the value of the gift and disclose the taxable value of such property in the return of income for assessment year 2010-11 and subsequent years. The tax incidence will arise only when the value of the property exceeded Rs 50,000. However, gifts received from a person who is a relative, on the occasion of marriage of the individual, under a will or by way of inheritance, in contemplation of death of the donor or from any trust or institution registered with the income tax authority will not be subject to income-tax.

The Indian government has decided to allow full foreign ownership of firms providing tele-conferencing and web-conferencing services, a sub-sector in the country's booming telecom industry where foreigners are allowed to hold only up to 74%. However, to invest in this segment, foreigners will have to get permission from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which is an inter-ministerial body that clears cross border investment into India and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) which deals with the country's internal security.

Gujarat National Law University hosted the recently concluded 26th Bar Council of India Trust moot court competition which is one of the most prestigious events in the country of such kind. GNLU shall be hosting its very own 2nd GNLU International Moot Court Competition (GIMC) next month after successfully hosting the first edition of it last year. This year’s event features more participation not only from Indian teams but also from teams outside India including teams from South Asia and Hungary among others.

Pursuant to the 188th Report of the Law Commission of India, 2003 recently, the Commercial Division of High Courts Bill, 2009 was passed by the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2009 and has been referred to a select committee for further discussions by the Rajya Sabha. The main object of the Bill is to provide for the establishment of dedicated divisions called the Commercial Division in each High Court of India, for the purpose of speedy disposal of commercial disputes valued at not less than INR 5,00,00,000 (Rupees Fifty millions) or such higher amount as the Central Government may notify in consultation with the concerned State Government.

Law has all of a sudden taken a new course with global law firms increasing their recruitments in the Indian legal market. Over the last one year with the slow revival of the financial market, firms such as Clifford Chance, Allen & Ovary, Linklaters and Jones Day among others have increase their hiring of Indian students from Indian law schools. In addition, law students are also finding jobs with international organizations of high repute such as UNESCO, UNICEF, Boston Consulting Group and Mckinsey among others.

The Competition Commission of India is planning to speed up the approval for key merger and acquisitions. It is considering a reduction in the proposed maximum time limit for clearance by the regulatory body on anti-competitive practices after representations from the concerned industry as well as by the EU Commission. As per the draft regulations, CCI can take upto 210 days to clear M&As that require special attention and are critical as they may lead to collusions or monopolistic tendencies. After 210 days, the M&A shall be deemed as approved if the CCI does not act further. However, practitioners feel that the limit of 210 days for approving key M&As is a stumbling block in the implementation of competition law which needs to be addressed immediately if India needs to witness an increase in the number of offshore investments. They feel that the 30-day schedule wherein if one does not hear from the CCI in 30 days and the M&A is then deemed as approved should be followed as a rule.

The Delhi High Court would start its own arbitration centre on the lines of the SIAC at Singapore thereby providing cost effective and effective solution for corporations which usually go overseas to settle disputes. This initiative shall be spearheaded by none other than the Chief Justice of Delhi himself, hon’ble Justice A.P. Shah. This centre would comprise of not only experts from the legal community but also engineers, chartered accountants amongst others.

The First draft of the proposed Sexual Offences (Special Courts) Bill, 2010 was sent to the union home ministry. This bill provides for designated sessions courts that would try the cases within a maximum period of six months. Incorporating recommendations made in a series of landmark judgments by the apex court, the Bill also provides for amendment in the Indian Evidence Act and turns all sexual offences into cognizable offences. It specifies that the statement of a victim would only be recorded by a woman police officer or a woman government official in the absence of which it would be recorded by a recognized female social worker. A new section 53A would be added in the Evidence Act to ensure that the moral character of the victim and her previous sexual experience are not questioned during the trial among amendments to other sections of the act.

The Central government notified a significant amendment that will now allow a victim to file an appeal against a court order in a move which can empower the common man who often fails to get justice because of inefficiency or corruption of prosecuting agencies. These amendments also lay down procedures for the protection of rape victims seeking punishment for their tormentors. The code gives victims the right to appeal against a court order acquitting an accused or convicting the accused of a lesser offence. Under the amended Section 372 of the CrPC, the victim will not need the permission of any law enforcement or prosecuting agency to appeal a court order.

The first ever air law moot court competition was held in New Delhi, India and was inaugurated by Mrs. Sheila Dixit, the Chief Minister of Delhi. The event which witnessed participation from 8 Indian and 5 overseas teams was organised jointly by the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation with the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden University (IIASL). The Leiden University team comprising Mildred Trogeler, Tridev Budia, Michel Adam and Sagar Singamsetty, emerged eventual winners while McGill University, Canada stood runner-ups and National Law University, Delhi stood third in the overall standings. Following them were Bangalore’s Christ University and Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. The moot was the brain-child of Nitin Sarin who conceived the idea of the same while pursuing his masters in air and space law from the International Institute of Air and Space Law, Leiden University. Christ University’s Anu Lisa Jose won the best oralist award while Hardeep Singh, a 2nd year student from National Law University, Delhi was awarded the scholarship worth 15,00 euros for an LL.M in Air & Space Law for having presented the best oral arguments courtesy the Minister of Transport, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Dr. Huang, legal officer of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) was unanimously elected as the best judge of the moot court. While the Dutch Ambassador to India, Mr. Bob Hiensch played host to all the judges and teams at his official residence which is ironically also the house where the accord for the partition between India and Pakistan was signed between Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammad. Ali Jinnah, the valedictory ceremony was presided over by hon’ble Justice S.S. Nijjar of the Supreme Court of India. The next edition of this event shall be held next year in Dubai with the civil aviation authority of Dubai welcoming the same.

Switzerland would be amending its laws to accommodate India’s demand for providing it with the list of tax evaders who have stored money in its banks. They would amend the double-taxation treaty to include tax evasion to prevent misuse. A revised agreement including incorporation of the principles of Article 26 of the OECD’s Model Tax Convention, would allow Switzerland to exchange information on all tax matters including cases of tax evasion and not just criminal tax fraud which was the case till now. Switzerland had earlier reached an agreement with the US to give America’s Internal Revenue Service, details of 4,450 of its clients whom the US suspected of tax evasion.

The Bank of America shall face a trial with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over billions in bonus paid at Merrill Lynch after a judge threw out the bank’s $33 million settlement and rebuked the agency for not pursuing charges against the executives. The SEC had accused BofA of failing to disclose to shareholders that it had authorised Merrill to pay up to $5.8 billion in bonuses to its employees in 2008 even though the investment bank lost $27.6 billion that year. BofA had agreed to pay $33 million to settle the charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing and that it did not violate disclosure rules but added that it did want to avoid litigation with the SEC at a time when there was market uncertainty due to the global metldown.

European competition law authorities have objected to Oracle Corporation’s proposed purchase of Sun Microsystems. They issued a statement saying that the deal focuses on reducing the competition in the database market if the deal is given the nod to go ahead. On the contrary, the US Department of Justice had approved the said deal. The EU Commission shall make a final ruling on the deal by 19th January. The EU’s opinion is that Sun’s MySQL could become a standalone competitor to commercial databases like Oracle’s if it were allowed to evolve on its own. This has been considered unusual by legal professionals involved in the deal as the deal was approved in the US but held in Europe.

The EU Commission began a probe into news and financial data company Thomson Reuters saying that it suspects that the company was abusing its dominant market position as per Article 82 of the EC Treaty. It suspected that the company is locking in customers using its real time market date feed services by preventing customers and competitors from translating Thomson Reuter codes to be used elsewhere.

A Malaysian court has ruled that Christians have the constitutional right to use the word Allah while referring God thereby setting aside its ban earlier imposed on the religious minorities. The Herald which had filed the case can now use the word Allah in its publication after the court quashed the home minister’s prohibition against it using the word.

France has struck down its planned carbon tax because it includes too many exemptions. This carbon tax meant to encourage consumers to use less fossil fuels and was supposed to come into effect on 1st January 2010. The exemptions included in the carbon tax run counter the aim of fighting climate change and created inequalities with respect to public charges.

A senior Tibetan religious leader, known as a "Living Buddha", was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison after being arrested in the wake of protests last year. According to The Telegraph, Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, the 52-year-old head of the Pangri and Yatseg nunneries in Kardze County, was arrested in a dawn raid on May 18, 2008. Tensions were high in Tibet at the time in the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile and the beginning of Chinese rule. Phurbu, who also operated a home for the elderly and took care of orphans and handicapped children, was initially charged with the illegal possession of firearms. Police said they discovered a pistol and more than 100 rounds of ammunition hidden in his house. He was also later charged with the illegal occupation of state land. The monk's legal team said the firearms had been planted and a confession extracted through torture.

China executed by a lethal injection, a British citizen by the name of Akmal Shaikh who was convicted of drug smuggling. Akmal was executed in Urumqi city after approval from China’s Supreme People’s Court thereby becoming the first British national to be executed in China in 50 years. China has been accused of being the world’s death penalty capital as it executes more prisoners than the rest of the world combined. According to Amnesty International, out of 2,400 executions that took place last year, over 1,700 executions took place in China alone.

US judge has ordered Microsoft to stop selling its popular Word document creation application in the country in 60 days after finding that the software contains technology that violates a patent held by a third party. I4i, a Toronto-based software maker, has been battling Microsoft over an obscure patent related to XML or Extensible Markup Language. XML is a key software component of many websites as well as Word and other programs. Upholding a a May 20 jury decision Tuesday, Leonard Davis, a federal district court judge in Tyler, Texas, banned the world's largest software from selling Word 2003 , Word 2007 and future versions of the software that use i4i's technology without a licence. The judge also ordered Microsoft to pay several hefty fines to i4i, including $200 million in damages and $40 million in "enhanced damages".