Delhi High Court ruled that the NCLT will have exclusive jurisdiction over company affairs
The Delhi High Court (“Delhi HC”), in the case of SAS Hospitality Pvt Ltd v. Surya Construction Pvt Ltd, held that civil courts, including high courts will have no jurisdiction to adjudicate on matters arising out of the Companies Act, 2013. The Delhi HC further held that matters under the Companies Act, 1956 will also be adjudicated by the National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) and not by any civil court.
GameChanger Views:
- Delhi HC referred to sections 430 of the Companies Act which does not permit civil courts to adjudicate on matters governed by the Companies Act, 2013.
- As the judges will be experts in company law, we foresee an improvement in company law jurisprudence in a medium to long term time period.
- Due to the increase in the number of matters that the NCLT will need to adjudicate on a short to medium term time period, litigants may experience a delay in the resolution time for all new cases.
Lotteries can be taxed under GST, Rules Calcutta HC
The Calcutta High Court (“Calcutta HC”), in the case of Teesta Distributors and Ors. v. Union of India, ruled that lotteries can be taxed under the Good and Services Tax, 2017 (“GST Act”). The Calcutta HC, on a reading of Schedule III of the GST Act, held that (i) lotteries can be treated as goods and; (ii) lotteries have been kept out of the definition of actionable claims, they can be taxed under the GST Act.
GameChanger Views:
- This may lead to certain states such as Goa and Nagaland imposing GST on gambling activities. This is because Entry 6 of Schedule III has kept betting and gambling out of the definition of actionable claims.
- This may lead to an increase in the tax collected by states where lotteries are permitted.
- As all lotteries will need to get a GST registration, it will have an impact on the number and operation of informal establishments.
MeitY asks sectoral regulators to define Critical Data
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“MeitY”) has reportedly asked sectoral regulators and other departments to define what constitutes ‘sensitive personal information’ and ‘critical data’. All critical data, as defined by the sectoral regulators will need to be stored in India. This has been done in light of growing questions being raised by foreign companies as to what constitutes critical data under the Draft Data Protection Bill that was submitted to the Government in July, 2018.
GameChanger Views:
- There will be no uniform definition of critical data applicable to all entities. Entities will need to store critical data on the basis of the sector in which they operate.
- This will lead to additional compliance on entities as one entity may be regulated by different regulators. For eg: A foreign telecom company will be regulated by both the RBI and by TRAI. The entity will therefore, need to look at the definition of critical data as issued by both TRAI and RBI.
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