Managing Director Liable For Dishonoured Company Cheques Where He Ran Its Day-to-Day Affairs: Kerala High Court

A Managing Director who was in charge of a company's day-to-day affairs and who signed its cheques can be held vicariously liable for cheque dishonour, the Kerala High Court has held, dismissing a revision plea by a company's former head. Justice M.B. Snehalatha upheld the conviction of V.J. Joseph, the former Managing Director of J and A Foundations Pvt. Ltd., in a cheque dishonour case under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. It involved three cheques issued by the company. The...

Mere Renting Of Residential Flat Does Not Take Away Buyer's Consumer Rights: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India has clarified that the mere act of leasing or renting out a residential flat does not by itself take a homebuyer outside the protection of consumer law. The Court ruled that a buyer can be excluded from the definition of “consumer” only if it is established that the dominant purpose of purchasing the flat was commercial in nature. The ruling arose from a dispute relating to a residential project in Gurugram. A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V....

Budget 2026-27: Centre Proposes ISM 2.0, Higher Electronics Outlay, Rare Earth Corridors, And Chemical Parks

Presenting the Union Budget 2026, the Centre announced a renewed push to manufacturing and industrial policy, including a new phase of the semiconductor mission, enhanced support for electronics manufacturing, rare earth processing and domestic chemical production. On the semiconductor sector, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India's Semiconductor Mission 1.0 had expanded domestic capabilities. “Building on this, we will launch ISM 2.0 to produce equipment and materials, design...

Budget Proposes Hike In Securities Transaction Tax On Futures And Options

The Union Budget 2026–27 on Sunday proposed an increase in Securities Transaction Tax (STT) on futures and options trades.Presenting the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced higher STT rates for derivative transactions. “I propose to raise the STT on Futures to 0.05 per cent from the present 0.02 per cent,” she said. The Finance Minister also proposed a hike in STT on options. “STT on options premium and exercise of options are both proposed to be raised to 0.15 per cent from...

'Would US Courts Do the Same?' Supreme Court Questions Pfizer On Plea To Access Indian Company's Documents

The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned whether foreign courts and Western authorities would reciprocate when Indian courts seek assistance through Letters Rogatory, while hearing a plea by US pharmaceutical major Pfizer. A Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was considering Pfizer's challenge to a Madras High Court judgment refusing to enforce Letters Rogatory issued by a United States court to obtain documents and testimony from Chennai-based Softgel...

US Class Action Lawsuit Alleges WhatsApp, Meta Can Access Encrypted Messages

A class action lawsuit filed recently in a US federal court in California accuses Meta Platforms Inc. and its subsidiary WhatsApp LLC of misleading users worldwide about the privacy of their messages. The case focuses on WhatsApp's repeated promise that messages sent on the platform are protected by end-to-end encryption and cannot be accessed by anyone other than the sender and the recipient, not even WhatsApp or Meta. The plaintiffs say that promise is false. According to the complaint,...