Delhi High Court Upholds Arbitral Award Ordering PVVNL To Refund ₹4.5 Crore Deducted As Delay Damages To IL&FS

The Delhi High Court has recently refused to interfere with an arbitral award directing Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) to refund Rs. 4.50 crore deducted as liquidated damages from IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company Ltd, holding that recovery without proof of actual loss cannot be sustained. Dismissing the challenge under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, Justice Subramonium Prasad upheld the award of Rs. 4,50,68,820 along with interest at...

Allahabad High Court Upholds Ghaziabad Property Tax Revision Based On Minimum Monthly Rent Rate

The Allahabad High Court has upheld the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation's revision of property tax based on minimum monthly rent rates (MMRR) under the U.P. Municipal Corporations Act, 1959.In a PIL challenging the revision of property tax and its enhancement based on MMRR, the bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Kshitij Shailendra held: “we neither find any error in determination of 'MMRR' based upon categorization/classification of the properties nor any illegality in the...

ARN Cannot Be Equated With Valid GST Registration Certificate: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has recently upheld Oil and Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) decision to reject a bid for failure to submit a valid Goods and Services Tax registration certificate at the time of bidding, holding that an Application Reference Number (ARN) cannot substitute a GST certificate in tender processes. A Division Bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, while dismissing a writ petition filed by Anantaa-MRKR-Arinfra (JV) Pvt. Ltd., said: “An ARN is only an...

Delhi High Court Upholds Arbitral Award Directing Flexing It To Convert CCDs Into Equity

The Delhi High Court recently upheld an arbitral award directing Flexing It Services Private Limited to convert investor Colvyn James Harris's compulsorily convertible debentures into equity equivalent to 2% of the company's shareholding as on January 31, 2017. It also upheld the arbitral finding that repeated acknowledgments of liability in correspondence extended the limitation period. Declining to set aside the award in a challenge under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act,...

Bombay High Court Sets Aside Arbitral Award Against MSRDC In Toll Collection Dispute

The Bombay High Court has recently set aside an arbitral award in a dispute between Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Ltd. (MSRDC) and Jai Laxmi Constructions Engineers and Contractors, holding that no arbitration agreement existed governing disputes under the Toll Collection Agreement and that an arbitration clause contained in a separate lender-related agreement could not be invoked for such disputes. A bench of Justice Somasekhar Sundaresan observed, “Therefore, the main test of...

Arbitral Award Not Decree At Challenge Stage, No Need For Separate Plea On Claims and Counterclaims: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court has recently held that parties can challenge arbitral awards covering both claims and counterclaims through a composite petition under Section 34 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, rejecting an objection that separate petitions were required as they amounted to distinct “decrees”. Emphasising that Section 36(1), which states that an arbitral award “shall be enforced as if it were a decree of the court,” is confined to the stage of enforcement, the Court observed: "In...

Bombay High Court Protects Kartik Aaryan's Personality Rights, Orders Removal Of Infringing Content

The Bombay High Court has granted temporary relief to actor Kartik Aaryan, restraining identified and unidentified defendants from unauthorised use of his name, image, voice and likeness across websites, social media platforms, AI-generated content and chatbots, holding that such use prima facie violates his personality/publicity rights and right to privacy. In an order dated April 15, 2026, Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh found a prima facie case of violation of personality and publicity rights,...

No Bad Debt Deduction From Taxable Income Without Actual Write-Off: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court has held that a taxpayer cannot claim a bad debt deduction merely by declaring a debt as irrecoverable and must comply with statutory conditions requiring an actual write-off in its books. A Division Bench of Justice G. Jayachandran and Justice Shamim Ahmed observed, “Merely stating that a bad and doubtful debt is an irrecoverable is not sufficient to claim deduction. Appropriate treatment in the accounts, together with compliance of the conditions in sections 36(1)(vii),...

Delhi High Court Corrects Error In Acharya Balkrishna's Personality Rights Order, Removes Bar On Meta, Google

The Delhi High Court on Friday corrected a procedural oversight in the personality rights suit filed by Patanjali's Acharya Balkrishna, clarifying that a restraint on content creation had been inadvertently extended to digital intermediaries, including Meta and Google Justice Tushar Rao Gedela noted that directions in the Court's March 24 order, which were intended primarily for the main content creators, had mistakenly been applied to all defendants, including intermediaries. The earlier...

Summary Processing Cannot Decide Debatable ESI, EPF Claims: Chhattisgarh High Court

The Chhattisgarh High Court on 16 April held that the Income Tax Department cannot invoke summary processing powers under Section 143(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 to disallow claims involving debatable legal issues, including employee contributions towards ESI and EPF, as such adjustments fall outside the limited scope of prima facie scrutiny.A Division Bench of Justices Sanjay K. Agrawal and Sachin Singh Rajput allowed the appeal filed by Maa Harsiddhi Infra Developers Pvt Ltd...

Delhi High Court Grants Importers Interest On Customs Duty Refunds After Delay In Re-Assessment By Department

The Delhi High Court has recently held that importers are entitled to interest on refunds of excess customs duty in cases where prolonged delay in reassessment is attributable to the Department. A Division Bench of Justice Prathiba M. Singh and Justice Shail Jain observed, "For the delay in Department's passing of the re-assessment orders, the Petitioners cannot be blamed or expected to unduly suffer. Accordingly, the Court is of the view that in the said four writ petitions, the interest...

Bombay High Court Grants Relief To NSE, Orders Suspension Of Domains, Takedown of Trademark-Infringing Accounts

The Bombay High Court has recently granted ad interim relief to the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd, restraining unknown persons from infringing its “NSE” trademark and directing social media intermediaries and domain name registrars to remove or disable infringing accounts, channels, and domain names. Justice Sharmila U. Deshmukh, in an order dated April 10, 2026, held that such a measure was necessary in public interest. “Considering the fact that an unsuspecting investor can be drawn...