COLUMNS
From Finality To Flexibility: Post-Gayatri Balasamy Jurisprudence In Indian Arbitration (2025)
The Hon'ble Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah in his speech “Keeping the Spirit of the Common Law Alive”, once said that “Flexibility is the prime virtue of common law. The genius of common law lies in its capacity for evolution and adaptability, as well as its resilience to cope with the demands of the times.”[1] This statement fits well within Indian arbitration jurisprudence. Last year, a constitutional bench of the Supreme Court pronounced the decision of Gayatri Balasamy v. ISG Novasoft...
CCI v. Swapan Dey: Who Decides Exclusivity Or Exclusion?
When does the exercise of patent rights become an antitrust violation? The apex court is now poised to answer a question that remains at the intersection of “innovation in a healthy competitive market” and “market regulation.” Recently, in Competition Commission of India v. Swapan Dey & Another,[1] the Supreme Court (SC) has stepped into a core jurisdictional conflict to determine whether the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the chief national antitrust regulator in India, can...
Beyond Kartavya: Union Budget 2026 And The Legal Quietude
The Union Budget is no longer a neutral fiscal statement confined to revenue and expenditure. It has become a central instrument through which governance priorities are asserted, social choices are structured, and constitutional values are indirectly shaped. Union Budget 2026-27 must therefore be read not merely as an economic exercise, but as a document of constitutional consequence. Its language, silences and emphases reveal how fiscal authority is exercised, how accountability is framed and...
Judgments That Shaped the Landscape for Customs' New Baggage Rules In Union Budget 2026-27
The Central government has proposed changes to Customs rules governing baggage clearance during international travel to address passenger concerns and align duty-free allowances with current market realities.The move is significant keeping in mind the rising disputes between passengers and Customs Department landing before Courts, mostly concerning the erstwhile Baggage Rules 2016, permissible limits of valuable goods that one may bring to the country, the procedure followed by Customs officers...
Arbitrating With Non-Signatories After Cox And Kings: Practice, Procedure, And Risk Management
Executive Summary The Group of Companies Doctrine is valid in Indian law, but its application requires proof of implied consent—not mere corporate affiliation. The Supreme Court's Constitution Bench inCoxand Kings Ltd. v. SAP India Pvt. Ltd. (2023)1 has authoritatively settled that a non-signatory can be bound to an arbitration agreement only where evidence demonstrates: (i) the non-signatory played a positive, direct, and substantial role in the negotiation, performance, or...
Appeal Without Remedy: GST Appellate System's Fatal Flaw
When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launched in July 2017, policymakers hailed it as a "good and simple tax" to streamline compliance and unify India's fractured indirect tax landscape. Eight years later, however, a glaring procedural defect in its appellate framework forces taxpayers into a grim dilemma: accept flawed orders or endure endless restarts. Under Section 107(11) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, appellate authorities can confirm, modify, or annul appealed orders—but...
From Vodafone To Tiger Global — A Constitutional Reset
The recent Supreme Court ruling in the Tiger Global matter marks a decisive shift in Indian international tax jurisprudence, which for over a decade had been shaped by the Court's landmark decision in Vodafone International Holdings BV v. Union of India (2012). The Vodafone era entrenched the primacy of legal form, situs of shares and treaty protection in offshore exit transactions, effectively enabling large-scale exits of India-centric businesses without Indian capital gains taxation,...
Beyond The TRC: A Veil-Piercing Moment In International Tax Law
The Supreme Court's judgment in Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax) & others v. Tiger Global International Holdings 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 50 marks a moment where the long-standing tension in Indian tax law between form and substance is not merely acknowledged, but decisively addressed. Quietly, and without theatrics, the Court applies to international tax law an instinct long familiar to company law: the willingness to look past formal compliance when substance tells a different story.The...
Voluntary Liquidation: A Strategically Sound Exit For Dormant Companies
In the Indian corporate environment, dormancy is often misunderstood as harmless inactivity. In law, however, a dormant company remains very much alive subject to statutory filings, regulatory oversight, penalties for non-compliance, and exposure to historical liabilities. For promoters, what appears to be a sleeping entity frequently becomes a source of recurring compliance cost and long-term uncertainty. The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) addresses this reality through a carefully...
IBC Part Z And Cross-border Insolvency In A Fragmented Global Order
Cross-border insolvency was long imagined as a space governed by cooperation and mutual trust, where courts across jurisdictions would recognise each other's proceedings to preserve value and impose some order on corporate failure. The UNCITRAL Model Law, which underpins India's proposed Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Part Z, rests on this assumption, that recognition and coordination ultimately serve everyone's interests. India's move in this direction, following the Insolvency Law...
Violations That Need No Passport: Borderless Nature Of Personality Rights Harm
In an era where digital communication has dissolved geographical borders, personal identity has become a free-floating asset capable of travelling globally without permission. A person's face, name, voice, movements, and behavioural traits now circulate with alarming ease, often appearing in contexts entirely divorced from reality. The disturbing truth of the twenty-first century is that personality rights violations do not require a passport or a confirmed travel ticket. They move instantly,...
