Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co., India’s leading corporate law firm is progressing ahead with its declared growth objectives towards its centenary year in 2017. In line with its strategic plan (Amarchand Version 3.0), the firm announced its initial promotions and growth of the partnership with the addition of 13 new Partners across its various Practice Areas, at its various offices. These promotions reflect the firm’s self confidence about future opportunities and the quality of its internal bench strength in its focused journey towards achieving the key objective of becoming a 1000 lawyer firm by its 100th anniversary in 2017.

• Corporate Practice
  


• Amarchand announced the elevation of Amita Choudary, Ipsita Dutta, Aysswarya Murthy, Rashmi Pradeep & Vidyut Gulati to the firm’s Partnership.



• Amita, Ipsita and Aysswarya joined Amarchand in 2005 from campus and are based out of the Mumbai office. Amita is a corporate lawyer with a strong Public M&A focus, and advices in Corporate Restructuring and Joint Ventures. Ipsita is a specialist in the Financial Regulatory space and she will enhance this practice area at the firm. Aysswarya is a Corporate M&A lawyer with a sectoral focus on the Financial services space.



• Rashmi joined the firm in 2003. She is a Corporate lawyer based out of the firm’s Bengaluru office. She has a special focus in employment laws, and a keen interest in Corporate and Private Equity work in the southern region. Vidyut has 10 years of experience in legal profession. She joined Amarchand in 2006 as a lateral appointment. She is a Corporate lawyer with a focus on M&A and Project Equity as she has years of experience in the infrastructure space, in roads, airports, port and power projects.



• Competition Practice



• Strongly increasing bench strength in the competition practice, Amarchand also announced the admission to Partnership of Naval Chopra, Shweta Shroff Chopra at Delhi and Nisha Uberoi at Mumbai offices respectively.



• Naval joined the firm in 2009 as a lateral from Freshfields, London. He has 9 years of experience in legal profession. He also has significant exposure to Competition & high stake Corporate commercial Litigation and Corporate transaction work. Shweta has 10 years standing as a lawyer. Both Shweta & Naval are well recognized Competition lawyers, who have significantly contributed to the Band-1 Competition practice of the firm. Nisha has 9 years of experience in the legal profession. She joined the firm initially from campus in 2002 and thereafter had international exposure with Ashurst and Rajah & Tann in Singapore. She has masters in Competition law and will develop the firm’s competition practice in Mumbai and the Southern offices of Bengaluru, Hyderabad & Chennai.



• Disputes



• Expanding its focus on Litigation and Arbitration practice further, Amarchand announced the elevation of Ruchi Mahajan, Jasleen Oberoi at the Delhi office and Indranil Deshmukh at the Mumbai office, to its Partnership.



• Ruchi has 12 years of experience of which 9 years are at Amarchand Delhi. Jasleen also has 12 years of experience in the legal profession and had joined Amarchand as a lateral in 2008, in Delhi. She was previously a Partner in Dua Associates before she joined Amarchand Mangaldas. She along with Ruchi will now work on growing the Arbitration, Litigation, FCP and White Collar Crime practice further. Indranil joined the firm in 2003 from campus. In addition to his focus on Mumbai litigation, he will also now help develop the litigation practices of the firm in the Southern offices of the firm at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.



• Intellectual Property and Patents



• Amarchand also announced the elevation of Nitin Masilamani at its Delhi office, to firm’s Partnership. Nitin joined the firm from campus in 2002. He has been part of the Amarchand’s Patent Practice since its inception and with his addition the IP practice is poised to enhance its footprint nationally and internationally.



• Capital Markets



• Shardul Shroff, Managing Partner, citing the new selection process, commented, "After the BCG engagement last year and announcement of Version 3.0 last October, the partner selection process has been comprehensively revamped. All the candidates have been selected after several rigorous rounds of evaluation by the Managing Partners and the firm’s Management Committee. The move also reflects the "2 wheels of the bicycle" concept through promotion of both family and non family talent"



• Cyril Shroff, Managing Partner, said, "These promotions reflect the firm’s continued investment across its key practice areas in direct response to client needs and the firm’s commitment to the Version 3 plan evolved. It also reflects its primary strategy of organic growth and its endorsement of deep internal bench strength. This gives us the confidence that we are firmly on track to achieve our ambitions set out as part of BCG engagement, which would make us one of the largest in Asia. Clearly Amarchand offers the best career opportunity for talented youngsters".

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd lost its two­ year­ old environmental clearance for a 4 million tonne captive coal mine and washery for not conducting a proper public hearing as required under India’s environment laws. The tribunal revoked the 18 May 2009 clearance granted to Jindal Steel’s mine and washery in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and did not go into the connected issue of whether a cumulative impact assessment was necessary for the project.

The Bombay High Court while hearing a winding-up petition filed by Etisalat Mauritius, a subsidiary of UAE-based telecom firm Emirates Telecommunication Corp on 12th March 2012, asked it to decide if it wants to appoint an independent administrator to run Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd in order to recover money for paying off creditors before winding up its business in India. Etisalat Mauritius was seeking the court’s permission to appoint a liquidator to oversee the winding up of Etisalat DB.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd lost its two­ year­ old environmental clearance for a 4 million tonne captive coal mine and washery for not conducting a proper public hearing as required under India’s environment laws. The tribunal revoked the 18 May 2009 clearance granted to Jindal Steel’s mine and washery in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and did not go into the connected issue of whether a cumulative impact assessment was necessary for the project.

The Bombay High Court while hearing a winding-up petition filed by Etisalat Mauritius, a subsidiary of UAE-based telecom firm Emirates Telecommunication Corp on 12th March 2012, asked it to decide if it wants to appoint an independent administrator to run Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd in order to recover money for paying off creditors before winding up its business in India. Etisalat Mauritius was seeking the court’s permission to appoint a liquidator to oversee the winding up of Etisalat DB.

A the two-member bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and K.S. Radhakrishnan of the Supreme Court of India has given the government another three months to conduct auctions for the 2G spectrum that will be freed up following the cancellation of licences in February, rejecting a petition by the department of telecommunications (DoT) asking for a year. The Apex Court rejected DoT’s clarification petition asking for 400 days to complete the auction process. Accordingly by virtue of this order, the time specified for conducting the auction and grant of licences has been extended up to 31 August 2012.

India’s competition regulator CCI has approved the mega-merger of Sterlite Industries and Sesa Goa that was announced by its parent company Vedanta Resources earlier this year. The merger, that will lead to a new entity, Sesa Sterlite, is aimed at simplifying the group structure of London-listed Vedanta Resources and will create seventh largest natural resources company in the world (in terms of EBITDA). The CCI in its order stated that the proposed combination was not likely to have an appreciable adverse effect on competition in India and therefore, the Commission had approved the combination.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, 2010was passed in the Upper House of India’s Parliament widen the beneficiary net for disabled children in Right to Education and provide those with severe disability the option of receiving education at home. The Bill aims at providing the right to receive home­based education to children with disabilities.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff Co. (AMSS), moving a step further in its bid to be the biggest and the best law firm of the country, has today, launched its new office in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat. Being the home-turf of the founding family of the firm, the city of Ahmedabad has a special connotation and regard. Mrs. Bharti Shroff, Senior Partner, who co-founded AMSS with her husband, the late Mr. Suresh Shroff, inaugurated the new office located in Prahladpur, one of the key localities in Ahmedabad. Other high-ups present on the occasion were the two Managing Partners, Mr. Shardul S. Shroff and Mr. Cyril S. Shroff accompanied by Mrs. Pallavi Shroff, Partner, and Mrs. Vandana Shroff, Partner. This key development is part of the bigger strategy to double in size to 1,000 lawyers and 100 partners by its 100th birthday in 2017. Currently, the firm has 555 lawyers including 59 partners, offering comprehensive legal advisory services through its offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. As the firm is growing and extending its orbit, there is an increased emphasis on reaching out to the locations showing signs of speedy growth. The regional expansion initiative is spearheaded by Mr. Pankaj Agarwal, Partner, who has distinguished experience in Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Joint Ventures, Financing, and Corporate Advisory group with special focus on advising clients on Real Estate and Private Equity transactions. The litigation practice would be lead by Mr. Tejas Karia, Partner, who specializes in International and Domestic Commercial Arbitrations, Corporate Litigations, Information Technology Law, Real Estate Disputes, Securities Laws and General Corporate Advisory. Born and brought up in Gujarat, the excitement is more than palpable for Tejas as the regional office holds peculiar significance for him. He plans to facilitate the firm in establishing its presence in his home-ground. At the launch, Mr. Agarwal stated, "In the absence of a structured full-service corporate legal advisory firm in Gujarat, Amarchand is set to provide the hitherto unavailable niche services from its diverse portfolio". With the present scale of 6-7 qualified lawyers, the firm has plans to expand its operational strength by taking this number up to 9 within the first year of operation.

AMSS already has various clients from Gujarat, across sectors such as petroleum and petrochemicals, power, engineering & auto, mines & minerals pharmaceuticals & biotechnology, ports & ship building etc. The physical proximity and locational advantage of an office in Gujarat would provide an additional edge to the organisation in fulfilling its aims and aspirations in servicing the existing clients as well as acquiring new business. With the longest coastline in the country, Gujarat offers tremendous geographical advantage providing a direct access to European and African countries. It can easily cater to North, East and Southern regions of the country. Moreover, Gujarat has experienced rapid economic growth in the recent years due to the development of automobile, infrastructure, petrochemicals and IT industries. The firm has consistently received accolades for its excellence by winning prestigious awards and rankings. International Financial Law Review (IFLR), for the 3^rd consecutive year, has honoured Amarchand Mangaldas, as “The National Law firm of the Year, 2011-2012”. In the recent Mergermarket League Table of Legal Advisers to Global M&A for Q1 2012 Amarchand ranked 1 with deal value of USD 11,646 Million. Furthermore, in the Bloomberg 2012 Q1 Asia Pacific M&A Legal Advisory League Table, Amarchand ranked 1 with 12 deals. Also, the firm won the International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Awards 2012 for the 2nd year in a row. It was also adjudged the 'exclusive winner' of the ILO overall award for India. Recently, the Managing Partner, Mr. Shardul Shroff, was honored for his 'Outstanding Contribution to the field of Law’, by Chambers and Partners, at The Chambers Asia-Pacific Awards 2012. Mrs. Pallavi Shroff, Head of dual practices (Competition & Dispute Resolution) of the firm, has been adjudged the Best Lawyer in Dispute Resolution in Asia at the Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Asia Women in Business Law Awards. She was also awarded as the 'Best Woman Lawyer' of the Year 2012 at the Legal Era Law Awards 2011-12.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff Co. has acted as the sole legal advisor to Bollywood film producer and distributor Eros International Plc, on its acquisition of the remaining 76 per cent stake in the digital broadcasting firm B4U Television Network in a cash-plus-stock deal worth $53.1 million (Rs 270 crore). In the present transaction, Eros International Plc was represented by Amarchand Mangaldas team, led by Delhi-based Partner, Puja Sondhi, and Principal Associate, Pooja Mahajan and Senior Associate, Ramanuj Gopalan. The counterparty(s) were advised by international law firm, Cleary Gottlieb. The deal is important as it will enable Eros International to acquire control over the channel and strengthen its presence in the entertainment value chain. Eros International Plc, which is promoted by the Lulla family, is listed on London’s AIM exchange and is the parent firm of the Indian public company Eros International Media Ltd.

A committee headed by former Delhi High Court Chief Justice, Justice Ajit P. Shah (Retd.) will submit its report on the Privacy Bill by June-end after a three-month long delay. The panel was formed in February by the Planning Commission. The committee has been divided into two sub-groups, one headed by Justice Shah and the other by Som Mittal, president of Nasscom. The move to enact a privacy law came against the backdrop of Aadhaar, the project to provide unique identity numbers to all residents of the country, and the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid), which will assist investigators in obtaining information tracked by 11 law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Right to Education Act, 2010 in a landmark judgement. This piece of legislation had been challenged by several private schools and envisaged that all poor children aged 6-14 years be given free and compulsory education within their neighbourhood. This included unaided minority institutions, which the court removed from the ambit of the law. This judgement shall become operational from the upcoming 2012-13 academic year but admissions that had already been completed would not be disturbed. The government will reimburse private schools for admitting poor students but only to the extent of the expenditure it will incur if those students were to be schooled in a state-run set-up. For boarding schools and orphanages, the court said that the judgement will be applicable only for day scholars and not for students-in-residence. The apex court judgement had a majority and a minority view, which included an element of dissent. Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice Swantanter Kumar pronounced the majority verdict, while Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan delivered a dissenting judgement, holding the RTE Act unconstitutional on the point of applicability to unaided non-minority schools. However, both judgements upheld the intention and overall constitutionality of the aforesaid act.

The Company Law Board recently ruled in favour of Unitech Wireless Ltd in its dispute with its international partner Telenor ASA by accepting the Indian company’s plea for international arbitration over the separation of assets held by their joint venture telecom company Uninor. The shareholders’ agreement that was signed between the two parties has a standard SIAC (Singapore International Arbitration Centre) clause stating that disagreements can be referred for arbitration to the SIAC. Unitech owns a 33% stake in Uninor and Telenor the remaining 67%. Telenor, which wants to split with Unitech, said it would appeal against CLB’s ruling in a higher forum, while Unitech predictably welcomed the ruling.

The CBI has done a U-tune by seeing the country’s top legal officer’s advice on if the investigative agency could register a case on the basis of a complaint filed by the army chief General V.K. Singh. General Singh gave a detailed report to the agency, alleging that a retired general had offered him a bribe of Rs14 crore to clear a tranche of “sub-standard” trucks for the 1.3 million strong armed force. Singh had approached the agency last month, but sought more time to provide details about the alleged incident. In its normal course, the CBI undertakes a preliminary enquiry. If the agency finds evidence in the preliminary enquiry, a case is registered.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has, today, passed its final order in Case No. 6/2011, filed by Coal India Limited (CIL) against various explosives manufacturers, including inter alia, Gulf Oil Corporation Limited, Ideal Industrial Explosives Limited, Solar Industries India Limited, Blastec India Pvt. Limited and Indian Explosives Limited, for violations of Section 3 of the Competition Act, 2002 (Competition Act). Coal India Limited was represented before the CCI by the competition team at Amarchand Mangaldas, Delhi, led by Senior Partner Pallavi Shroff, along with Principal Associate Shweta Shroff Chopra, Senior Associate Harman Singh Sandhu, and Associate Yaman Verma. CIL had alleged that various explosives manufacturers were engaging in anti-competitive conduct by collectively determining prices, threatening to stop supplies and boycotting the reverse auctions organized by CIL to finalise its suppliers for explosives, which is a critical input for coal mining. The CCI found that the 10 named explosives manufacturers violated Section 3 of the Competition Act by collectively boycotting the electronic reverse auction held in January 2010. The CCI held that there was a concerted action among the explosives manufacturers not to participate in the CIL reverse auction, which resulted in a collective boycott of the auction and manipulation of the bidding process, in violation of section 3(3)(b) of the Competition Act. Further, the CCI held that given that the named explosives manufacturers controlled nearly 75% of the explosives market in India, the collective boycott of the bid had resulted in foreclosure of fair and free competition causing appreciable adverse effect on competition.

In light of its findings, the CCI has fined 10 explosives manufacturers 3% of the average of their annual turnover for the last three financial years, with fines totaling approximately INR 60 crores. The decision by the CCI is a unanimous decision.

Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff Co., India’s largest and leading law firm, has acquired the top position in Asia Pacific (ex Japan) region, ranked by value, in the latest mergermarket League Tables of Legal Advisers to Global M&A for Q1 2012. One of the prominent deals recently advised by the firm is the major restructuring and merger deal valued at USD 14 billion by Vedanta Resources. The firm advised the board on restructuring and simplification of the company’s business structure by merging its largest subsidiaries, Sesa Goa and Sterlite India, into a single unit called Sesa Sterlite.

• Asia-Pacific Rankings
For the APAC region (ex Japan), under the category of deal value, Amarchand is ranked 1 with deal value of USD 11,646 Million. With respect to the deal count, the firm is ranked 4 with 10 deals.


• Asia Rankings
Amarchand & Mangaldas is ranked no.1 with 10 deals in Asia in Q1 2012, up by 22 places in comparison to the Q1 2011 league table under the category of deal value. In terms of volume, the firm is second, making a giant leap from the 20th rank in Q1 2011.

Some of the international firms admitted in the rankings are Allens Arthur Robinson, Baker & McKenzie, Latham & Watkins, Slaughter and May, and Indian firms such as Luthra & Luthra, Desai Dewanji and AZB & partners. Similarly, in the recent Bloomberg 2012 Q1 Asia Pacific M&A Legal Advisory League, Amarchand ranked 1 by deal count with 12 deals. Under the category of deal value, Amarchand ranked 4 with a deal value of USD 1120 Million. Amarchand has consistently received accolades for its excellence by winning prestigious awards and rankings. International Financial Law Review (IFLR), for the 3rd consecutive year, has honored Amarchand Mangaldas, as "The National Law firm of the Year, 2011-2012". Also, the firm won the International Law Office (ILO) Client Choice Awards 2012 for the 2nd year in a row. It was also adjudged the 'exclusive winner' of the ILO overall award for India. Recently, the managing partner, Mr. Shardul Shroff, was honored for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to the field of Law', by Chambers and Partners, at The Chambers Asia-Pacific Awards 2012. Mrs. Pallavi Shroff, the senior partner of the firm, has been adjudged the Best Lawyer in Dispute Resolution in Asia at the Euromoney Legal Media Group’s Asia Women in Business Law Awards. She was also awarded as a Best Woman Lawyer of the Year 2012 at the Legal Era Law Awards 2011-12.

LAmarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff Co. acted as an advisor to Japan’s largest non-life insurer, Mitsui Sumitomo, in signing of a transaction which involved purchasing of 26% stake from New York Life Insurance (‘NYL’) in Max New York Life Insurance (‘MNYL’) for the total consideration of INR 2,731 crores($530 million). For tax negotiation, New York Life Insurance was represented by Freshfields and BMR whereas Mitsui was represented by Paul Weiss and Amarchand Team including Bangalore-based partner Nivedita Rao & senior associate Anand Jayachandran and Delhi-based principal associate, Amit Singhania. This deal is significant as New York Life Insurance was holding its stake in Max New York Life Insurance through Mauritius and contended that no tax is liable to be paid in India owing to the Indo-Mauritius tax treaty benefits. The estimated tax liability is approximately INR 350 crores. Amarchand Mangaldas negotiated full tax withholding along with indefinite tax indemnity without cap on account of growing uncertainty in Indian tax landscape particularly in wake of proposed GAAR provisions and DTC.

Lex Witness - India's 1st Magazine on Legal & Corporate Affairs presents Real Estate and Construction Legal Summit RCLS 2012 which aims to provide all stakeholders in the real estate, construction as well as infrastructure industry verticals, including senior management, their general counsel, internal and well as external an opportunity to - share thoughts and experiences, discuss and analyze new insights on current challenges faced by the industry. It would cover all facets like legal complications, inconsistent, ambiguous and insufficiently tailored contracts have the ability to stall project effecting cash flows, organization reputation, haze assets and drive inefficient resource utilization.www.rcls2012.in

The Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court of India comprising Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Justices D.K. Jain, S.S. Nijjar, R.P. Desai and J.S. Khehar, has in an ongoing hearing with respect to the media coverage of sub-judice cases, had its scope expanded to include coverage of criminal investigations which includes including raids, questioning and arrests by police officials. This expanded scope will now also in addition to criminal investigations, include television shows containing sex and violence. The aforesaid hearing involved the hearing of four cases namely (i) a public interest case concerning the coverage of the Aarushi Talwar murder case, (ii) a contempt case in which a suspect of the Batla House encounter case that took place in Delhi was interviewed by the India Today magazine, (iii) a public interest case by an NGO, Common Cause, on sex and violence being shown on general entertainment channels that the NGO believed was inappropriate for children and (iv) norms for news channels in the light of alleged encounter killings in Maharashtra, where the media’s closeness with the police was being examined.

The law ministry is reviewing the Rs.1,571.60 crore channel-deepening tender of the government-owned Jawaharlal Nehru port after Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd which was one of the bidders, complained that it was wrongly disqualified from participating in the auction. This is because one of the dredgers which are specialized ships used to deepen the channels of ports and harbours that it had offered for the work was more than 15 years old whereas the tender had stipulated that dredgers executing the contract should not be more than 15 years old.

The Supreme Court of India accepted the union government’s review petition on its 2G spectrum licence cancellation judgement last week, which largely stressed on the government’s policy powers having been usurped by the court, thereby implying judicial overreach by the apex court. At the same time, the court rejected the petition of seven telecom companies namely Videocon Telecommunications Ltd, STel Ltd, Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, Tata Teleservices, Unitech Wireless Ltd, Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt. Ltd (formerly Swan Telecom) and Idea Cellular Lt, who had challenged the cancellation of licences and as well as a review petition of former telecom minister A. Raja that the apex court’s ruling unfairly implicated him. The union government had filed a 23-page review petition on 3rd March 2012 arguing that the court’s judgement in the aforesaid case was in direct conflict with the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 which, prescribed the issuance of mining rights through the first-come-first-served (FCFS) policy since the Division Bench of the Supreme Court comprising of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Gangully had ruled that the FCFS policy followed by Raja in allotting the telecom licences was arbitrary and illegal. The government also stated in their plea that the constitutional separation of powers was also violated by the court, as it stepped into the domain of the executive by formulating the policy on distribution of natural resources. The government may also seek a presidential reference to clarity on whether the court’s ruling affects licences granted prior to January 2008, including the dual technology licences held by Reliance Communications Ltd and Tata Teleservices.

The union finance ministry is looking into allowing online Aadhaar authentication as a valid proof of identity for opening bank accounts by considering an amendment to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, or PMLA, to recognize online Aadhaar data to satisfy know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. Moreover once the aforesaid amendment is done, a customer can approach a bank branch and give his unique identity number and biometric details to open an account, which will be electronically authenticated through the Aadhaar database. This would lead to electronic, low-cost customer acquisition for banks and other financial institutions, saving them significant money spent on physical record-checking and documentation since data confirming the resident’s demographic and biometric data can then be treated as a valid KYC and further manual verification of this digitally signed response will not be required.

A proposal is being considered by the union government to undo a Supreme Court ruling passed in September last year which stated that all offences under the Customs Act and Central Excise Act should be non-cognizable and bailable. The said proposal seeks to amend the Customs Act and Central Excises Act by making arrests as non-bailable if they are punishable by more than three years in jail has drawn criticism from Indian opposition political parties. If the amendment is made, it will mean that a person arrested for a serious customs offence will not be eligible for bail until a public prosecutor is allowed to present his case, which could mean a longer wait than is required now.

The Defence Ministry allowed foreign vendors last week to use transfer of technology to fulfil their offset credits thereby easing the policy aimed at developing the indigenous defence industry which is seeing a large number of private domestic players such as Tata, Mahindra and Reliance amongst others entering the Indian defence manufacturing industry. The government also increased the time for bank offset credits to seven years, from the present two-year limit within which foreign vendors have to execute their offset obligations after the execution of contract obligations. Under the Defence Procurement Procedure, 2011 or DPP 2011, India imposes counter-trade obligations on original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) awarded defence contracts worth more than Rs. 300 crore by way of transfer of critical technologies and production of components in India.

The Delhi High Court clarifying the rule with respect to passport applications in India stated that a person seeking passport is bound to disclose the names of his or her biological parents and not state the name is his or her adopted parents unless the adoption has not been legally mandated. Justice Vipin Sanghi gave the ruling saying that the passport is not merely a travel document, but a crucial document of one's identity. The identity of a person is determined, inter alia, by his parentage and thus, there has to be a "legal" adoption for getting the passport issued without the biological father's name.Thus, when a child is adopted, the name of adopted father cannot be put on the passport till the same has been legally accepted.

The BJP Government in Karnataka has agreed to exclude buffalo from the Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Prevention Bill 2010, which is pending with the President for nearly one year. The President had suggested that the State Government should remove the ambiguity regarding cattle in the definition clause. As per the definition given by the Karnataka Legislation to the Centre, the term cattle covered both cow and buffalo, female and female species and their progeny. The State Government has now restricting the definition of cattle to cows leaving out the buffalo.

Realty firm Unitech has applied to a district court in Gurgaon seeking an injunction against its Norwegian partner and telecom giant Telenor's plan to transfer joint venture Uninor's assets to a new entity. The petition filed under Section 9 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 also seeks to restrain Telenor's possible entry into telecom business in direct competition with Uninor by invoking the non-compete clause in the shareholder’s agreement between the two parties namely Telenor and Uninor. Earlier, Telenor had also approached the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) seeking approval to bring in a new partner for its telecom business in India. This included plans to bid for 2G spectrum with a new domestic partner when the government starts its auction.

The National Green Tribunal which was enacted last year by an Act of Parliament for looking into environmental issues has cancelled environmental approvals given by the Indian government last year for the company’s $12 billion (around Rs61,440 crore) proposed steel plant in Orissa and ordered that the union environment ministry review the entire project afresh. The Ministry of Environment and Forests had cleared the aforesaid project on 31st January, 2011 and now this order of clearance shall stand suspended till such fresh review as ordered by the green tribunal. The steel plant is to be constructed in east Orissa on more than 4,000 acres, 75% of which is forest land, and will involve one of the largest foreign direct investments in India till today.

Last week, the Singe Bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjib Bannerjee ordered the appointment of an official liquidator with immediate effect to take over Dunlop India Limited’s current assets and to secure those assets that were fraudulently sold earlier without the approval of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) since Dunlop was under the regulatory oversight of BIFR.

Kolkata-based chartered accountant-turned-businessman, Pawan Kumar Ruia bought Dunlop in 2005 from the late Manohar Rajaram Chhabria’s Jumbo Group. West Bengal’s labour minister, Purnendu Bose had earlier prior to the aforesaid order described the appointment of a liquidator as a “fait accompli”. In its submissions to the hon’ble court, Dunlop had admitted to having transferred properties, including the one in Mumbai’s Worli area for a total of Rs. 320 crore in 2006-07. These were sold to Dunlop’s wholly-owned units, which paid for these properties by issuing their own shares.

Last week, India defended its decision to allow Indian drug manufacturers to produce and sell copies of patented drugs under its compulsory licensing norms by stating that this was consistent with the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS), a World Trade Organization agreement of which India is a signatory. As per India's Patent Act1970, compulsory licensing allows a local drug maker to manufacture a generic version of a life-saving patented drug that’s not freely available in the market, without the consent of the patent owner. In the beginning of March 2012, India’s patent office invoked this provision for the first time, granting a licence to Natco Pharma Ltd to make and sell a copy of Bayer Healthcare AG’s cancer drug Nexavar after determining that the life-saving drug was not available at a reasonably affordable price.

The Union government declined to join the arbitration proposed by Reliance Industries Limited to resolve the dispute over the recovery of cost for developing the D6 hydrocarbon field in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) basin. RIL now has the option of either challenging the government in court, or accept the petroleum ministry’s proposal to deny the $1.24 billion (around Rs6,343 crore today) in costs that it had claimed, a move that could potentially reduce RIL's profit. This decision of not joining the arbitration proceedings by the government was based on a legal opinion given by India’s solicitor general Rohinton F. Nariman. RIL had initiated arbitration proceedings in anticipation of the government’s reported move to restrict the cost recoverable by the company for developing the KG D6 field depending on the level of utilization. The Petroleum Ministry plans to restrict the recovery of costs incurred by RIL for the excess capacity created in block KG-DWN-98/3, and limiting such recovery of costs only to the extent of the infrastructure used. The KG D6 block has been in controversey after the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said in a report that RIL had breached some terms of its contract with the government.

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010, which was introduced in December 2010, was brought back to the Lok Sabha with fresh amendments in December last year, including one which seeks to restrain judges from making unwarranted comments against conduct of any constitutional authority such as the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Election Commission and has now been approved in the Lok Sabha. The passage of the Bill in Parliament will repeal the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968 but will still include the key provision of impeachment of a Supreme Court or High Court judge. Other key provisions of the Bill inlcude punishment for frivolous complaints being reduced from a fine of Rs. 5 lakh and 5 years imprisonment to Rs. 1 lakh and 1 year, respectively. Also if a complaint has been filed against a judge in good faith, the complainant cannot be sued by that judge or anyone else.

The Supreme Court of India announced last week that it would frame guidelines for the media on reporting judicial proceedings, especially in criminal cases. The apex court is contemplating introducing curbs on the hearing 11 complaints from various senior counsels on instances of misreporting of court cases.The court adopted Senior Advocate and former Attorney General of India, Soli J. Sorabjee’s submissions that the media should not be allowed to report a case until a judge takes note of it because it would otherwise needlessly “prejudice the accused”.

ICICI Bank moved the Calcutta High Court seeking to participate in the so-called wind-up proceedings launched against tyre maker Dunlop India Ltd by its unsecured creditors, attempting to protect the Rs. 575 crore that it had loaned to the company which was allowed by the court. In 2008, ICICI Bank loaned money to two Ruia promoted companies namely Shalini Properties and Developers Pvt. Ltd and SPR Resorts Ltd against the mortgage of a 58.5-acre plot in Athipattu village near Chennai. However the judgement on transfer of Dunlop’s properties as reportes by India Law Journal above had put at risk the money the bank had lent to the Ruia companies.

The Bar Council of India has retained the power to recognize law schools across India, as it emerged from a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Humna Resource Development. BCI will continue to control legal education that leads to professional practice, and the government will have control over diplomas and degrees such as Bachelor of Academic Laws that are not recognized by BCI and do not allow a graduate to practice law in India. BCI, however, will have to follow the norms and process of accreditation set by the government or a statutory authority which the government is in the process of doing since it recently moved a Bill to make accreditation mandatory for all educational institutes.

Majmudar & Co. has been rebranded as Majmudar & Partners and will, henceforth, operate under this new name. According to Mr. Akil Hirani, the firm’s Managing Partner, the main reason for the addition of the word, "Partners" to the name was to appropriately signify the growth agenda of the firm through the ongoing induction of new equity partners into the firm. The firm has restructured its partnership and compensation structure commensurate with international standards and in line with its stature as a top-tier law firm in India.

Kesar Dass B. & Associates (KDB) has merged its corporate/commercial practice with Kaden Boriss with effect from 15th November 2011. KDB is one of the top law firms advising in the area of insolvency, turnaround and rescue - advising on revival and restructuring, preparing schemes of arrangements, negotiating one time settlement of loans with lenders. KDB has been ranked as 1st Tier firm in Asia Pacific for 'Insolvency' matters by Legal 500 Organization. Another important development under this merger is that Mr. Sumant Batra, the mentor of Kesar Dass B. & Associates, has taken over as Head - International Business Advisory in Kaden Boriss. He brings with him enormous experience and expertise in the area of insolvency & restructuring apart from cross-border transactions. Sumant is also Immediate Past President of INSOL, International senior consultant to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Asian Development Bank for Asia in insolvency, corporate governance and other areas. Kaden Boriss has also been yet again recommended by Global Legal 500 Organization as a credible law firm in the Asia Pacific for 'Corporate and M&A' and `Real Estate’ law practices. It is also listed with International Financial Law Review (Euromoney) and International Law Office (http://www.legal500.com/firms/34071/34275)

Kochhar & Co. Partner Dorothy Thomas, Senior Associate Aniruddha Ghosh and Associate Anirban Mohapatra advised the Vinci Group, a Euro 35 billion French construction major, in its entry into India by way of 100% acquisition of NAPC Limited, a 60 year old Chennai-based road construction company with a turnover in excess of Rs. 600 crores. NAPC Limited, which currently has orders on hand worth Rs. 1850 crores, was advised by AZB & Partners. The deal was signed on October 20, 2011 and was completed on January 11, 2012.

In the case of Carlsberg India Private Limited vs. Radico Khaitan Limited allowed the appeal of Carlsberg and vacated the partial injunction granted by the Single Judge against Carlsberg. The Single Judge had rejected Radico's claim for exclusivity over the numeral '8", but had granted injunction against Carlsberg restraining them from using the numeral "8" in a writing style and coloring which was alleged to be similar to the manner in which Radico used the same numeral. The Division Bench went a step further and refused exclusivity over the style and colouring as well. The Division Bench of the Delhi HC set aside the injunction granted by the Single Judge Bench and upheld the current appeal filed by Carlsberg holding inter alia that the reason on which the Single Judge Bench granted the injunction (i.e. to avoid any bleak chance of misrepresentation) is not a valid ground for grant of injunction; prima facie there exists no actionable similarity between the two marks and mere similarity in the manner of writing the numeral "8" or use of colours cannot be sufficient to prove infringement and that there do not appear to be any actionable similarity between the Radico trade dress and the Carlsberg trade dress.

TThe Securities Exchange Board of India vide Circular No. CIR/IMD/FIIC/1/2012 dated January 3, 2012 has done away with the facility of reinvestment of the corporate debt limits available with the foreign institutional investors leaving the FIIs who had acquired debt investment limits high and dry, especially those FIIs who had recently purchased these limits in pursuance of SEBI Circular No. CIR/IMD/FIIC/20/2011 dated November 18, 2011. To the disappointment of FIIs that had purchased such debt limits with a long term debt strategy in mind, the Circular has withdrawn the facility of re-investment by the FIIs by providing that the debt limits acquired henceforth by an FII shall expire upon the redemption or sale of debt securities, with certain leeway for FIIs that have already acquired debt limits.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court found Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against its President Asif Ali Zardari, but gave him only a symbolic sentence of a few minutes’ detention in the courtroom. Gilani’s lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, said the prime minister would appeal against the ruling, which means uncertainty over his fate could drag on for months. Gilani is the first serving prime minister in Pakistan’s history to be convicted by a court, but his sentence - detention lasting just a few minutes until the session was adjourned - was symbolic. He could have faced up to six months in jail and the loss of office.

In a landmark ruling, an international tribunal found former Liberian President Charles Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone's brutal civil war. It was the first war crimes conviction of a former head of state by an international court since the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II. A three-judge panel issued a unanimous decision that Taylor was guilty of aiding and abetting rebel forces in a campaign of terror that involved murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscripting children younger than 15 and mining diamonds to pay for guns. Taylor has been a pivotal figure in Liberian politics plunging the country into a bloody civil war that left 200,000 dead over the next 14 years. After he was forced out of office under international pressure in 2003, he lived in exile in Nigeria, where border guards arrested him in 2006 as he was attempting to cross into Chad amid international pressure. These events resulted in his trial, which began in 2007 at the special court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands. U.N. officials and the Sierra Leone government jointly set up the tribunal to try those who played the biggest role in the atrocities.

India has taken the United States to the World Trade Organisation after the latter imposed duties of nearly 300% on Indian steel pipe imports, complaining that they were unfairly subsidised. Consultations are the first step in the WTO’s complaints process, giving parties a chance to resolve their dispute without litigation. If no deal is reached after 60 days, the complainant can ask a WTO panel to adjudicate.

The United States Department of Justice sued Apple Inc. and five book publishers, stating that they had colluded and conspired to fix the prices of electronic books, and reached a settlement with three of the publishers that could lead to cheaper e-books for consumers. The DoJ filed the aforeaid lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. While the government had reached a settlement with three publishers namely Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Shuster, it would proceed with its lawsuit against Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers, doing business as Macmillan, and The Penguin Publishing Co. Ltd., doing business as Penguin Group.

The England and Wales’ High Court on 30 March dismissed the Vijay Mallya owned Indian formula one company Force India’s three-year-old plea of copyright violation against UK-based Aerolab SRL who is a former designer of Force India cars. As a result of this verdict, Vijay Mallya will have to shell out legal charges, including €850,000 (Rs. 5.7 crore) that Force India owed Aerolab. The copyright infringement case was filed in the UK by Force India after Aerolab terminated a contract with it, following a payment default in 2009 after which it started working for rival Caterham Cars and was accused of using some of the designs registered by Force India for the new clients. Force India had claimed damages of €15 million from Aerolab and the other respondents for copyright violation. The high court in its 464 page verdict stated that Force India could not fully convince it that Aerolab employees had actually used a trade secret (the design of several parts of Force India cars) to design the cars of rival Caterham. It is not clear whether Force India will seek an appeal in the aforesaid order passed to its detriment.

A few years ago between 2005 and 2008, Viacom had sued YouTube claiming the website allowed users to post copyrighted Viacom content without its permission. The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals last week remanded the case to a lower court, instructing the district judge to determine if YouTube had knowledge or awareness of specific infringing material and whether it willfully closed its eyes and ignored such content. The district judge in June 2010 agreed that YouTube was protected from infringement claims because it moved to remove the copyrighted material swiftly the moment it was notified, using a “safe harbor” provision under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which YouTube claimed gave it legitimate services protection from such infringement claims while providing the copyright holder an expedient way to stop any misuse of their content.

Employees of Indian information technology giant Tata Consultancy Services Ltd who were moved from India to work in the US, have won a court’s permission to proceed with a class-action lawsuit over a wage dispute in California. The employees have been allowed to sue as a group TCS and Tata Sons Ltd which is the holding company for the entire Tata group including TCS for allegedly breaching employee contracts and violating California labour laws. Employees had accused the company in 2006 of forcing all non-US citizen employees to sign over their US federal and state tax refund cheques to the company and that Tata also deducted their Indian wages from their compensation.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week heard three days of arguments on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's with a ruling expected to come in June this year. The U.S administration opions that the court must uphold the law to ensure that Congress can tackle national problems by employing comprehensive solutions. The main question of law that was heard by United States' apex court whether Congress held the constitutional power to require Americans to carry health insurance or to pay a penalty. According to the governmental authorities,this mandate is the essential innovation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which was enacted two years ago and includes younger and healthier people who might otherwise avoid paying premiums. Critics, however state that the particular way the Affordable Care Act is structured violates the constitutional framework intended to constrain federal power by channeling it through a limited set of policy options.

Social networking site Facebook Inc. rebutted the claims by entrepreneur, Paul Ceglia that he owned a major stake in the social network. Facebook disclosed the results of a long investigation that included forensic analysis and emails from founder Mark Zuckerberg's college days in a move to dismiss the 2010 lawsuit filed by Ceglia who had claimed in his suit that he had a contract that entitled him to 50% of Zuckerberg's Facebook stake. To refute Ceglia's case, Facebook obtained more than 200 of Zuckerberg's emails from Harvard's server and analyzed the electronic fingerprints of Paul Ceglia's emails, according to papers filed with the company's motion and further stated that Ceglia forged the contract and then attempted to cover his tracks with fake emails.

The 16^th MUNDIAVOCAT which is the football world cup for lawyers shall be held in the city of Rovinj in Croatia from 1^st-10^th June, 2012. 60 teams from all across the globe have registered for this event. Star Alliance is in the process of signing up as the airline alliance partner for the event. More information on this event is available at www.mundiavocat.com

Recently, an international arbitration panel awarded U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil Corp. about $908 million in a verdict over oil assets nationalized by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2007. The payout is substantially lower than the $7 billion that Exxon was seeking in restitution and is likely to be a boon for Venezuela's defiant leftist government, which in recent years has embarked on a wide- spread nationalization campaign to centralize control over key economic sectors. Both parties i.e. Exxon Mobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PdVSA) are still awaiting a decision on the suit filed by Exxon's local subsidiary, Mobil Cerro Negro Ltd., against Venezuela in front of the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, where the Chavez administration is facing around 20 pending cases. With billions in potential payouts looming, the number of cases has been the source of constant concern for holders of Venezuelan sovereign bonds. The verdict comes four years after Exxon, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, left Venezuela in a spat with the country's government, which decreed that the state oil monopoly would have the majority stake in joint ventures with foreign partners. By law, PdVSA now holds at least 60% of all oil projects. Exxon has said that it invested around $750 million into the Cerro Negro facility. The company reduced its claim to $7 billion from an initial claim of $12 billion. (Source: Wall Street Journal)

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted recently in a surprise end to a politically-charged sodomy trial he has called a government bid to cripple his opposition ahead of forthcoming polls. The ruling by Judge Mohamad Zabidin Diah in the more than two-year trial defied the expectations of many political observers and even Anwar himself, who said the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak was intent on eliminating him as a political threat. It was the second sodomy verdict in a dozen years for Anwar, a former deputy premier in the 1990s who was next in line to head the country's long-ruling government until a spectacular downfall. Once the sodomy charge was overturned in 2004 and he was released, the affair threw Anwar into the opposition, which he led to unprecedented gains against his former ruling party in 2008 general elections. But the new sodomy charges emerged shortly after those polls – Anwar was accused of sodomising a former male aide sparking accusations they were concocted by the ruling United Malays National Organisation to stall the opposition revival. Sodomy is illegal in Muslim-majority Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in jail. (Source: The Telegraph, U.K., http://www.telegraph.co.uk)