INDIA’S SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND EXPRESSION
Introduction On March 24, 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (the “SC”) pronounced its judgment on constitutional validity of Sections 66A, 69A and 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (the “IT Act”) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011 (the “Intermediary Rules”). The SC declared Section 66A of the IT Act to…
INDIA – KEY CHANGES AFFECTING FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN THE INSURANCE SECTOR
Introduction On December 26, 2014, the President of India promulgated the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 (the “Ordinance”) to amend the Insurance Act, 1938 (the “Act”), the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, 1972, and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999. On March 12, 2015, the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament)…
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE INCOME TAX PROPOSALS IN INDIA’S BUDGET FOR 2015-16
India’s Union Budget (“Budget”) was announced on February 28, 2015, and the Finance Bill, 2015 (the “Finance Bill”) was tabled in Parliament. Most of the income tax proposals in the Finance Bill will be effective from the financial year commencing on April 1, 2015, unless specified otherwise. Announced in the backdrop of high expectations, the…
PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO INDIA’S ARBITRATION LAW: WILL IT HAVE THE DESIRED EFFECT?
Introduction The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (the “Act”), was enacted by the Parliament of India to consolidate and amend the law relating to domestic arbitration and enforcement of foreign awards. One of the main objectives of the Act was to minimise the supervisory role of courts in the arbitration process. However, in our view,…
RECENT CHANGES TO INDIA’S FOREIGN EXCHANGE REGULATIONS
This update discusses certain key changes to India’s foreign exchange regulations implemented in the past few weeks Liberalization of the limit under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (“LRS”) In the bi-monthly monetary policy statement released on February 3, 2015, the Reserve Bank of India (the “RBI”) has increased the limit on remittance of foreign exchange for…