Justice Rohinton F. Nariman Calls For Direct Division Bench Appeals Against Domestic Arbitral Awards
Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Rohinton F. Nariman on Friday called for doing away with the Single Judge stage for challenges to domestic arbitral awards and allowing parties to go directly before a High Court Division Bench, with a full appeal on both facts and law. He suggested that the Division Bench decide such appeals within one year. Justice Nariman also stressed that the arbitration regime must ensure not only speed and cost-effectiveness, but also accuracy, so that awards which are wrong on facts or law do not survive judicial scrutiny.
The Delhi High Court has laid down detailed guidelines to its registry for ensuring compliance with stamp duty and registration requirements in petitions seeking enforcement of domestic arbitral awards. The directions come after the court held that an inadequately stamped arbitral award cannot be acted upon at the enforcement stage merely because the decree holder subsequently deposits the deficient stamp duty.
Today, the Supreme Court issued notice in the Union of India's challenge to a Tripura High Court judgment which allowed a purchaser to claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) despite the supplier having failed to deposit the GST collected from the purchaser with the Government. A Division Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran also stayed the operation of the High Court's 6 January 2026 judgment.
Kerala High Court Sets Aside Income Tax Assessment Treating PG Student's Stipend As Salary
The Kerala High Court on 17 August set aside an income tax assessment order treating the stipend received by a postgraduate medical student as salary, holding that the Assessing Officer failed to consider his claim that stipend paid to a student is exempt from income tax. A Division Bench comprising Justices Devan Ramachandran and Basant Balaji allowed the appeal filed by Nahas Kakkattummal and set aside both the Single Judge's judgment and the assessment order, directing the Assessing Officer to reconsider the matter after giving the student an opportunity to produce relevant documents
Copyright Office Says AI System DABUS Can't Be Copyright 'Author' Under Indian Law
On 31 August, the Indian Copyright Office rejected an application seeking registration of copyright in an artwork on the ground that its stated author, an artificial intelligence system called DABUS, is not a person recognised in law and therefore cannot be named as an author under the Copyright Act, 1957. Registrar of Copyrights Prof. (Dr.) Unnat P. Pandit passed the order while considering an application filed by Dr. Stephen L. Thaler for registration of the artistic work titled “A Recent Entrance to Paradise”
Bombay High Court Orders Takedown of AI Deepfakes Misusing Actor Shruti Haasan's Personality Rights
The Bombay High Court has ordered the removal of online content identified in actor Shruti Haasan's suit and restrained the unauthorised use of her name, voice, image and likeness through artificial intelligence and other technology. Justice Madhav J. Jamdar granted the relief as an ad-interim measure after observing that the material placed before the court made out “a very strong prima facie case”. The relief will continue until further orders.
Today, the freshly constituted Five Member Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at New Delhi stayed the approval of Dr Subhash Chandra's repayment plan, which offered Rs. 6.25 crore to creditors against admitted claims of Rs. 22,006.57 crore. The Bench comprising NCLT President Justice Anupinder Singh with Judicial Members Bachu Venkat Balara Das and Mahendra Khandelwal, and Technical Members Atul Chaturvedi and Ravindra Chaturvedi, restrained Chandra from alienating his properties on a request made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the creditors.
The National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru, has recently directed the Resolution Professional of Byju's and the successful bidder to maintain the status quo over auctioned assets. The order came after the Resolution Professional of Byju K3 claimed that assets worth about ₹150 crore had been auctioned for about ₹16 crore despite an ownership dispute. The tribunal found that ownership of some of the assets remained unclear.
Homebuyers Cannot Be Made To Bear Penal Charges For Project Delays As CIRP Costs: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has ruled in a case that time extension charges imposed for delays caused by a defaulting developer are penal in nature. They cannot be passed on to homebuyers as costs of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP), observing that the default was that of the developer and homebuyers could not be made to bear that liability.
"The time extension charges in any event are penal in nature and the developer who has caused the default having ended up in a CIRP, the inclusion as CIRP costs would be unjust and misconceived. The default was of the developer and homebuyers cannot be mulcted with that liability," the court observed.
The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) at Chennai has recently dismissed EY's insolvency plea against a company. EY was seeking a 1% success fee for relief obtained in GST proceedings. The tribunal found a genuine dispute over EY's entitlement to the outcome-based fee. It also observed that the nature of EY's professional engagement and the permissibility of the outcome-based fee arrangement may be examined by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India if the services were rendered through persons governed by its regulatory framework.