Delhi High Court Refuses ITC Bid To Stop Adyar Gate Hotels' Use Of 'Dakshin' Mark

The Delhi High Court has refused to restrain Adyar Gate Hotels Limited from using the "DAKSHIN" trademark for its standalone Chennai restaurant. It held that ITC Limited's trademark infringement claim was not maintainable. The court also found that ITC had failed to establish a prima facie case for passing off or copyright infringement. A division bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla dismissed ITC's appeal against a single judge's order refusing interim relief. The...

Delhi High Court Upholds Rejection Of Swiss Company's Patent For Plastic Static Mixer

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld the rejection of Swiss company Sulzer Mixpac AG's patent application for a plastic static mixer used to mix molten polymers. It held that the claimed invention did not involve an inventive step over the company's own earlier patents and amounted to "a mere modification" based on prior art. A division bench of Justice C. Hari Shankar and Justice Om Prakash Shukla upheld the earlier decision rejecting the application filed by the Swiss company. It found...

Delhi High Court Holds NSE Is Public Authority Under RTI Act, Upholds 2010 Ruling

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday upheld a 2010 ruling declaring the National Stock Exchange (NSE) a public authority under the Right to Information Act. It held that the exchange must be regarded as having been established or, at the very least, constituted by an order of the Central Government because governmental recognition is required for a stock exchange to function and the recognition order is issued by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as the Central Government's...

PMLA Court Can Try Corruption Cases Along With Money Laundering Case After Transfer: Kerala High Court

The Kerala High Court has held that a Special Court constituted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) can try a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act once the case is committed to it. It held that this remains so even if the court is not the one specifically notified to try offences under the anti-corruption law. Justice A. Badharudeen made the finding while dismissing a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The agency had challenged an...

Taxpayer Cannot Claim Refund After Transitioning VAT Input Tax Credit To GST: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has recently held that a taxpayer who chooses to carry forward accumulated VAT input tax credit into the GST regime cannot later seek a cash refund of the same credit. Upholding the rejection of a refund claim of ₹18.75 lakh, the court observed that while transitional credit can be used to discharge output tax liability, it cannot be refunded once it has been carried forward into the GST regime. A division bench of Justice A.S. Supehia and Justice Vaibhavi D. Nanavati...

Karnataka High Court Upholds Constitutional Validity Of Premium FAR Scheme, Rejects Challenge Over TDR Value

The Karnataka High Court recently upheld the state's Premium Floor Area Ratio (Premium FAR) scheme, rejecting challenges that it unfairly allowed developers to buy additional building rights from the government at the cost of landowners holding Transferable Development Rights (TDRs). A Division Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice C.M. Poonacha dismissed a writ appeal filed by a landowner who had opted for Transferable Development Rights (TDRs) in lieu of monetary compensation for...

Trademark Registrar Can Be Court Subordinate To HC For Rectification Proceedings Transfers: Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court has recently held that the Registrar of Trade Marks can be regarded as a court subordinate to the High Court for the purpose of transferring pending trademark rectification proceedings. The ruling came while allowing the Institute for Technology and Management Trust (ITM) to transfer three rectification proceedings pending before the Registrar to the High Court, where a trademark suit between ITM and Samata Lok Sansthan Trust and 17 connected rectification proceedings are...

ED Can Share Information With Concerned Agencies On Violations Of Other Laws Under PMLA: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday held that information uncovered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during an investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) can be shared with other agencies if it discloses violations of another law. It ruled that such information is not confined to proceedings under the PMLA alone. Justice M. Nagaprasanna made the observations while refusing to quash an FIR registered against Micah Mark and five others over allegations that they were...

Earlier Reassessment Regime Applies To Non-Searched Taxpayers In 2021-24 Searches: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court has held that the earlier reassessment regime can apply even where the assessee was not the person searched, provided the reassessment is founded on incriminating material recovered during a search conducted within the statutory transition period. Applying that principle, the court quashed reassessment proceedings against a transporter after holding that the reopening notice had been issued beyond the applicable limitation period. A division bench of Justice A.S....

Limitation Began On Refusal To Perform: Karnataka HC Upholds Arbitral Award In Housing Society's Favour

The Karnataka High Court has upheld an arbitral award directing a landowner to execute sale deeds for the remaining sites under a development agreement. It held that the society's claim was not barred by limitation because the agreement did not prescribe a fixed date for execution of the remaining sale deeds, and limitation began only when performance was refused. A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K.S. Hemalekha dismissed an appeal by landowner A.R. Abdul Razak...

Politicians Must Tolerate AI Satire, But Not Vulgar Deepfakes: Delhi High Court In Raghav Chadha Case

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday partly allowed Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha's plea for interim relief against AI-generated deepfake content. It directed Meta Platforms and another platform arrayed as a defendant to take down URLs corresponding to six of the 52 impugned posts after finding them to contain "explicit content" that was "profane and vulgar in nature." The court declined to restrain the remaining content, holding that most of it amounted to political satire rather than defamation. ...

Expeditious Arbitration Alone Does Not Establish Arbitral Award Was Procured By Fraud: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court recently held that the mere expeditious conclusion of arbitral proceedings, by itself, does not establish fraud vitiating an award. Fraud must be demonstrated through cogent attending circumstances and cannot be inferred from speed alone. The bench of Justices Debangsu Basak and Shabbar Rashidi set aside an order passed by the executing court in an award arising from a sale dispute, holding that no case of fraud had been made out. The court held, “Simplicitor on the...