Bombay High Court Dismisses 'SUNDAY' Trademark Renewal Plea, Finds Notice Properly Dispatched

The Bombay High Court has dismissed a writ petition seeking renewal of the trademark "SUNDAY". It held that the Trade Marks Registry had discharged its obligation to issue a renewal notice before the registration expired by proving that it had been properly dispatched.A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad held that once the Registry proved proper dispatch of the notice to the address for service, the statutory presumption of service came into...

Karnataka High Court Upholds Arbitral Award Cancelling JDA Over Mutual Breach By Developer And Landowners

The Karnataka High Court has upheld an arbitral award cancelling a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) between Fortuna Constructions (India) Pvt. Ltd. and a group of landowners for a residential apartment project in Bengaluru. It held that the arbitral tribunal was justified in refusing specific performance after finding that both sides had failed to fulfil their contractual obligations. A bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha observed that the tribunal had not decided...

Bombay High Court Temporarily Restrains Niravi From Using 'SAPAT' Trademark For Tea

The Bombay High Court has restrained Niravi Consumer LLP and its associated entities from using the trademark "SAPAT" in relation to tea, holding that they failed to establish any independent right to use the mark for tea.Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh held that Niravi's continued use of "SAPAT" signages while selling "NIRAVI" tea was likely to cause confusion and infringed SAPAT International Private Limited's registered trademark."the consumers would enter the shops being drawn by the signages...

Kerala High Court Orders Registrar To Decide Trademark Applications Pending For Over A Decade In Three Months

The Kerala High Court has directed the Registrar of Trademarks to consider and pass orders on two trademark registration applications that have remained pending since 2012 and 2014, directing that a decision be taken within three months. Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas observed that the applications filed by Nisar Ali Pari, proprietor of Bella Bathware, had remained undisposed of despite the passage of more than a decade. "Despite the lapse of more than a decade, the applications have not been...

Delhi High Court Directs Meta To Remove Zee's Copyrighted Content From 14 Facebook Pages

The Delhi High Court has recently directed Meta Platforms Inc. to take down infringing content uploaded by operators of 14 Facebook pages carrying Zee Entertainment Enterprises' television serials and web series. The court passed the ad-interim order but declined, at this stage, to direct blocking of the Facebook accounts themselves.Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani passed the order in a suit filed by Zee against Meta and 18 other defendants. Zee sought permanent, mandatory and dynamic injunctions...

Uniqueness' Not A Statutory Test For Refusing Trademark Registration: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has recently set aside an order refusing registration of the trademark 'OFFER' for alcoholic beverages. It held that the Registrar of Trade Marks rejected the application by applying the non-statutory test of "uniqueness" instead of examining whether the mark was distinctive in relation to the goods for which registration was sought.Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing an appeal filed by ADS Spirits, which had applied to register the mark OFFER in Class 33 for "alcoholic...

Delhi HC Allows SC, HC Judges To Show Allowances As 'Receipts Not In Nature Of Income' Under New Tax Regime

The Delhi High Court, by way of an interim direction, has allowed Supreme Court and High Court judges to file their income tax returns by showing prescribed judicial allowances as “receipts not in the nature of income”, even while opting for the new tax regime.The order came in a petition filed by the Delhi Tax Bar Association challenging a September 12, 2025, Office Memorandum issued by the CBDT, which, according to the petitioner, denied judges opting for the new tax regime the benefit of...

Calcutta High Court Quashes Criminal Case Against Bajaj Finserv MD, Holds Loan Dispute Civil in Nature

The Calcutta High Court has recently quashed criminal proceedings against the Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv and another company official. It held that allegations arising from the restructuring of a personal loan and the recovery of loan dues disclosed a civil dispute rather than criminal offences such as cheating, criminal breach of trust or forgery.Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee held that the complaint did not contain the particulars necessary to sustain the allegation of forgery. The court...

Madras High Court Sets Aside Part Of Arbitral Award Against Tuticorin Port Trust Over Water Charges

The Madras High Court has partly set aside an arbitral award that held Tuticorin Port Trust (now V.O. Chidambaranar Port Trust) liable to pay water charges under the "Other Beneficiaries" category from December 1, 2002. The dispute arose between the Port Trust and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD Board).A division bench of Justice P. Velmurugan and Justice K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi held that the award suffered from patent illegality. It found that the arbitrator failed to...

Delhi High Court Refuses To Examine GST Liability On Diagnostic Services, Directs Petitioner To AAR

The Delhi High Court has recently refused to examine a challenge to the levy of 18% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on diagnostic services rendered by a private lab, observing that the issue falls within the jurisdiction of the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) under the GST Act, 2017.A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetrapal and Amit Mahajan disposed of two writ petitions filed by a company after being informed that the vacancy in the Delhi Authority for Advance Ruling had been filled, thereby...

Fresh Employment Agreement Doesn't Automatically End Arbitration Clause In Earlier Contract: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has recently held that execution of a fresh employment agreement does not, by itself, extinguish an arbitration agreement contained in an earlier contract. It observed that whether the earlier contract stood completely substituted depends on the parties' intention, which must be gathered from the overall transaction rather than from the later agreement alone.Justice Amit Borkar delivered the ruling while partly allowing a petition filed by Sarla Advantech Private Limited...

'Government Cannot Be Held Ransom': Delhi High Court Upholds Rejection Of Vedanta's Oil Block Contract Extension Bid

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the Union Government's decision rejecting Vedanta Ltd's application for a ten-year extension of its Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for an offshore oil and gas block in Gujarat.Observing that the government "cannot be held ransom to the whims of a private company", the court held that Vedanta had rendered itself ineligible for an extension. It found that the company had unilaterally deducted the Government's share of Profit Petroleum towards its Special...