Madras High Court Directs Reconsideration Of Indian Bank's Maharashtra GST Waiver Claim

The Madras High Court on 31 July directed GST authorities to reconsider Indian Bank's application seeking waiver of interest and penalty in respect of its Maharashtra operations. Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy held that when a single order under Section 73 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 covers operations in multiple States, the proper officer cannot reject a waiver claim under Section 128A of the Act for one State on the ground of lack of jurisdiction if no other officer is...

Punjab & Haryana HC Grants Bail To Two Accused In ₹197 Cr. GST Fraud Case, Holds Allegations Need Trial

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on 29 July granted regular bail to two accused in a Goods and Services Tax (GST) fraud case involving an alleged loss of around Rs. 197.39 crore to the government exchequer, holding that the allegations would have to be tested at trial where the case was largely based on documentary and electronic evidence and the prosecution witnesses were government officials. Justice Shalini Singh Nagpal passed the order in petitions arising from a complaint filed by the...

Bombay High Court Sets Aside Rejection Of Olympic Committee's 'Faster, Higher, Stronger-Together' Trademark

The Bombay High Court has set aside the Registrar of Trade Marks' rejection of the International Olympic Committee's application to register “Faster, Higher, Stronger-Together” and remanded the matter for fresh consideration by another officer.Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan was hearing a petition filed by the International Olympic Committee (Comite International Olympique), challenging the rejection of its application to register the phrase, which the committee adopted as a further improvisation...

ITAT Cannot Automatically Confirm Adverse Order For Non-Payment Of Costs: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on 7 August held that the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) cannot make payment of costs a condition for continuation of an appeal or direct that non-payment would automatically revive or confirm an adverse appellate order. A Division Bench of Justices Rajarshi Bharadwaj and Uday Kumar clarified that while the ITAT can impose costs for procedural lapses, such costs cannot be made a condition precedent to a litigant's statutory right to have an appeal adjudicated,...

Employee Named Arbitrator Pre-2015 Ineligible If Arbitration Had Not Yet Commenced: Tripura High Court

On 10 August, the Tripura High Court held that an employee or officer named as an arbitrator in an agreement executed before 23 October 2015 becomes ineligible to act as arbitrator if arbitration had not commenced before the 2015 amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao allowed Kashinath Bhattacharjee's arbitration petition in a dispute under a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) tender agreement and rejected BSNL's attempt to appoint its...

Delhi High Court Seeks PAN Details Of Supreme Court, High Court Judges Amid Income Tax Allowances Dispute

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the Private Secretaries of Supreme Court and High Court judges who have filed their income tax returns under the new tax regime to furnish their PAN Card details.The Court had also directed furnishing other details like assessment year, date of filing and Acknowledgment Number (of Return) to the Income Tax Department, to ensure that their returns are not processed pending adjudication of a plea concerning the tax treatment of judicial allowances.The bench...

GST Search Grievance Cannot Invoke Criminal Jurisdiction Under Section 528 BNSS: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court on 4 August held that a grievance concerning search or inspection by Goods and Services Tax (GST) authorities cannot be brought within the scope of Section 528 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), merely because tax officials are empowered to conduct search and seizure while following criminal procedure. Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy declined to entertain the petition filed by B. Rajkumar, who carries on business as Maharaja Jewellers in Chennai, seeking a...

Madras High Court Reduces Vedanta's Pre-Arbitration Interest From 14% To 9% In Masyc Projects Dispute

The Madras High Court on 31 July partly allowed Vedanta Limited's appeal arising from its dispute over the design, manufacture, supply and commissioning of a conveyor system for a copper concentrate warehouse at Tuticorin, while substantially upholding the arbitral award in favour of Masyc Projects Pvt. Ltd.A Division Bench of Justices P. Velmurugan and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi held that interest awarded for the pre-arbitration and pendente lite periods must be commensurate with the...

Delhi High Court Issues Notice On YouTuber's Plea Challenging Meta's Copyright Strike Mechanism

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notice on an application by stock market trading content creator Saurabh Maurya challenging the manner in which his account was suspended following copyright strikes. Even as Meta informed the court that Maurya's account had been restored and the strikes against it reversed, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued notice on his broader challenge to the manner in which intermediaries act on copyright strikes. Maurya approached the court after his account was...

Arbitrator Cannot Disregard Agreement To Treat WhatsApp Exchanges As Concluded Contract: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has held that an arbitrator cannot disregard the terms of the contract under which a dispute was referred to arbitration and treat WhatsApp exchanges as a separate concluded agreement when that was never the pleaded case.Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh partly set aside an arbitral award in a family partnership dispute involving a husband, his wife, and other family members. The court quashed the direction to pay 9% annual interest on a ₹5 crore loan, which the arbitrator had...

Delhi High Court Grants Jahnvi Kapoor Relief Against Obscene Content, Commercial Misuse Of Persona

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday declined to grant a blanket injunction sought by actor Jahnvi Kapoor against 6,884 URLs that she claimed infringed her personality rights.Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani indicated that interim relief could be considered for three categories of content. These were content that is ex facie obscene or pornographic, content that directly monetises Kapoor's personality rights, and content using her name and likeness to promote the sale of merchandise or services.Kapoor...

Company Cannot Deny Employee Equity By Relying On Its Own Failure To Frame ESOP Scheme: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has recently held that a company cannot rely on its own failure to frame an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) to deny an employee equity that was offered as part of his remuneration package.Justice N.J. Jamadar made the observation while dismissing Waterfield Advisors Private Limited's petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The company had challenged an arbitral award directing it to allot 31,878 equity shares to its former Director...