Key developments in the Indian legal landscape in 2016
From the Startup India campaign launched in January 2016 to the coming into force of substantial provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in December 2016, the legal landscape in India has witnessed some crucial developments this past year. In this LawFlash, we describe briefly what we consider to be some of the key legal and regulatory developments in India in 2016.
Arbitration Act
India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) issued a notification on December 7 (Notification) announcing that certain provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 (Act), which are currently not in effect, will come into force on December 15, 2016.
The key provisions that will be brought into force include the following:
Compromise, Arrangements, and Amalgamation
Certain provisions contained in Chapter XV of the Act will be brought into effect that deal with
FINANCIAL SERVICES
New Regulations Facilitate Retail Investor Participation in Singapore Bond Market
Singapore is set to adopt the recommendations of the Committee to Strengthen Singapore as an International Centre for Debt Restructuring.
Innovations to the Act in late 2015 seek to modernize and simplify collective proceedings in OHADA member states.
After years of delay, on 1 August 2016, the Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010 will be brought into force in the United Kingdom, making it easier for a party with a claim against an insolvent business to bring the claim directly against the insurer of that business.
A possible alternative to the freezing injunction.
A judgment has recently provided helpful guidance on a creative form of injunction. The “notification order” compels a defendant to give notice to the claimant before disposing or dealing with its assets. This notification order is less onerous than a freezing injunction, and although it usually accompanies the freezing injunction, in this case, the order was issued as standalone relief. The notification would alert the claimant to apply for a freezing injunction prior to dissipation of any assets.
In the week that Leicester City overcame odds of 5000/1 to be crowned Premier League champions, the insurance market was (almost) as astounded at the news that the long-awaited Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010, which received Royal Assent on 25 March 2010, will be coming into force on 1 August 2016.
Recent developments in landlord and tenant law concerning the position of the outgoing tenant’s guarantor on the assignment of the lease can only be described as ‘bonkers’. A few years ago, the Good Harvest and House of Fraser cases confirmed that a parent company could not guarantee both of its subsidiaries on an intra-group assignment. Last month, in the EMI case, the High Court has confirmed that the assignment of a lease to the tenant’s guarantor is similarly void.
Happy anniversary
Decision establishes framework for future rulings that covenants in midstream agreements do not run with the land.