Delhi High Court To Examine If Limitation For Income Tax Assessments Applies To Final Orders Passed Under DRP Procedure

The Delhi High Court has admitted the Income Tax Department's appeal to examine whether the statutory deadline for passing income tax assessment orders under Section 153 also governs final assessment orders passed under Section 144C, which lays down a separate assessment procedure for eligible assessees.Section 144C of the Act prescribes a special assessment procedure involving a draft assessment order, review by the Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP), and the passing of a final assessment order for...

Mandatory 7.5% Customs Appeal Pre-Deposit Cannot Be Waived Or Reduced: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has recently held that the mandatory pre-deposit required for filing an appeal before the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) under Section 129E of the Customs Act, 1962 cannot be waived or reduced, as the Act contains no provision permitting such reduction.A division bench of Justices Anil Kshetrapal and Shail Jain passed the order while disposing of four writ petitions filed by importers challenging orders passed by the customs authorities and...

Centre's Order To Change Similar Company Name Can't Be Invalid Because It Was Triggered By Complaint: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has upheld an order directing a DNA testing company to change its name, holding that the Central Government's power to rectify similar company names under the Companies Act is not rendered invalid merely because its opinion was triggered by an application from another company. "The order being passed under Section 16(1)(a) of the Act, even though triggered by an application, cannot be considered to be invalid or without jurisdiction, for the simple reason that it was...

Vedanta Oil Block Contract Extension: Delhi High Court Asks Centre To Clarify If Rejection Was A Policy Decision

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Union Government to clarify in an affidavit whether its decision refusing to extend Vedanta Ltd.'s Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for an oil block off the Gujarat coast was based on a broader policy decision. The court asked whether the refusal was aimed at securing higher public revenue from petroleum resources or moving away from extending legacy PSCs, or whether it was confined to the reasons recorded in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas's...

Delhi High Court Upholds Injunction Against 'DYNAFRESH' In Trademark Dispute With Anchor's 'DYNA'

The Delhi High Court has dismissed an appeal filed by Jagdish Dahyalal Patel against an ex-parte ad-interim injunction restraining him from using the trademark 'DYNAFRESH' for air fresheners.Relying on the Registrar of Trade Marks' unchallenged finding that 'DYNAFRESH' was deceptively similar to Anchor Consumer Products Private Limited's registered trademark 'DYNA', the court held that Patel's adoption of the mark was not bona fide.A Division Bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet...

Delhi High Court Grants HBO Temporary Injunction Against 30 Rogue Websites In Copyright Suit

The Delhi High Court has recently granted an ad-interim injunction in favour of Home Box Office Inc. (HBO) against 30 rogue websites allegedly streaming its copyrighted films and shows without authorisation.The court has also directed internet service providers (ISPs) and domain name registrars (DNRs) to technically verify whether any newly identified website is a mirror, redirect or alphanumeric version of the injuncted websites and, if so, enforce the injunction against it as a pro-tem...

Email Delivery Of Scanned Signed Arbitral Award Starts Limitation For Challenge: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on 7 July held that an arbitrator's email transmitting a scanned signed copy of an arbitral award amounts to valid delivery under Section 31(5) of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and starts the limitation period for challenging the award under Section 34. Justice Om Prakash Shukla dismissed a petition by the Chief Engineer, Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), challenging an arbitral award dated 19 August 2023 in favour of Enarch Consultants as...

Delhi High Court Orders Takedown Of 'Kala Hiran' Teaser, Related Clips In Salman Khan's Personality Rights Suit

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed that all disputed links, including the teaser of movie Kala Hiran and other online content identified by actor Salman Khan in his personality rights suit, be taken down within 24 hours. The court further directed that if the uploaders failed to remove the content within that period, the platforms hosting it would take it down within the next 24 hours. Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing Khan's interim application in his personality rights suit against the...

Delhi High Court Sets Aside Refusal Of Patent For Cancer Drug Combination, Orders Fresh Review

The Delhi High Court has set aside the refusal of a US company's patent application for a pharmaceutical combination used to treat proliferative diseases, including colorectal cancer.Holding that the Deputy Controller's findings on inventive step and patentability under Sections 3(d) and 3(i) of the Patents Act could not be sustained, the court remanded the matter for fresh consideration. Justice Tushar Rao Gedela rejected the objection under Section 3(i), observing, "It is clear that claim 1...

Delhi High Court Bars Unity Small Finance Bank From Considering Share Capital Increase Without BharatPe's Consent

The Delhi High Court on Friday held that Unity Small Finance Bank could not place before its board a proposal to increase its authorised share capital and amend its Memorandum of Association without the prior written consent of BharatPe, which owns a 49% stake in the bank. Justice Tushar Rao Gedela granted interim relief to BharatPe (Resilient Innovations Private Limited), holding that the proposal fell within "Reserved Matters" under the parties' Shareholders' Agreement (SHA)."If the SHA...

Requiring AI Companies To Obtain Multiple Licences For LLM Training Would Be Economically Unviable: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that requiring artificial intelligence (AI) companies to obtain licences from multiple sources to train Large Language Models (LLMs) would make their development economically unviable, while refusing to grant an interim injunction sought by ANI Media against OpenAI in its copyright infringement suit over ChatGPT. "The key to success of an AI model is to access the information in public domain. The development of LLMs and their success depends on availability of...

Delhi High Court Sets Aside Arbitral Award Rejecting Spectrum Power's GST Refund Claim Against GAIL

The Delhi High Court has set aside an arbitral award rejecting Spectrum Power Generation Limited's claim for refund of GST reimbursed to GAIL (India) Limited under a Gas Sale Agreement, holding that the award suffered from patent illegality.The court held that GAIL was required to independently establish that it had deposited GST and that the arbitral tribunal could not rely on disputed tax payment receipts without first deciding their admissibility.Justice Avneesh Jhingan observed, "In the...