Courts Financial News

By Jonathan Stempel

Delhi High Court asked the AAP on Friday how a «ruling» political party could seek permission to hold a protest in the national capital when there was a prohibitory order in force against gatherings in view of ongoing farmers' protests. Justice Subramonium Prasad, while hearing the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) petition challenging the police's refusal to allow it to hold a «peaceful protest» of 800 people at Jantar Mantar on February 25 in relation to allegedly inflated water bills, said if the permission is granted to the party, a floodgate of other such applications will open. «When P2 (an order under section 144 of the CrPC) is there, how can a ruling party come (for permission)? P2 is there and you, as the government or as a party which is the government, (permission) cannot be granted,» the judge said.

Allahabad bench of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) quashed the service tax demand of ₹20.36 crore from Jaypee Sports International Limited (JSIL) in connection with the Formula One race. It said the race promotion contract between Formula One World Championship (FOWC) and JSIL was not a franchise agreement and that no service tax was leviable. «It is not possible to hold that the race promotion contract is a franchise agreement, under which FOWC provided franchise service to JSIL and consequently the demand of service tax of₹20.36 crore is clearly not sustainable,» the bench of PK Choudhary, member (judicial), and Sanjiv Srivastava (technical member) said on Monday. The court said 'franchise' means an agreement by which the franchisee is granted representational right to sell or manufacture goods or to provide service or undertake any process identified with franchisor, whether or not a trade mark, service mark, trade name or logo or any such symbol, as the case may be, is involved.

Supreme Court has ordered the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) authorities in Uttar Pradesh to appoint a man, whose selection was cancelled in 2005 for allegedly concealing information about a criminal case against him, as a constable. The apex court noted that when the man had applied for the job on February 12, 2004, there was no criminal case registered or pending against him. However, five days after submitting the application, he got implicated in a criminal case in which he was subsequently acquitted by the trial court in September 2004. «Broad-brushing every non-disclosure as a disqualification will be unjust and the same will tantamount to being completely oblivious to the ground realities obtaining in this great, vast and diverse country,» a bench of justices J K Maheshwari and K V Viswanathan said in its verdict delivered on Thursday.

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Forest (Conservation) Act (FCA) 1980, a Supreme Court bench earlier this week stated that states and UTs must go by the 'dictionary definition' of 'forest' — all statutorily recognised forests, whether designated as reserved, protected or otherwise — to determine whether any work can be approved on a land. Crucially, it directed GoI to get information from states regarding lands identified as forests based on lexical interpretation, as outlined in the 1996 Godavarman ruling, and that no zoos or safari parks can be set up in such areas without the court's nod. The 1996 ruling expanded the definition of forests beyond those notified or recorded officially.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is serious about moving the electric car company out of Delaware and reincorporating in Texas, he got good news yesterday from a judge in Delaware Chancery Court. In a case involving Tripadvisor, Vice Chancellor Travis Laster said that the online travel site can go ahead with plans to move its state of incorporation from Delaware to Nevada. The move was pushed by Tripadvisor's controlling shareholder, Greg Maffei, but was opposed by shareholders who argued that Maffei's goal was to evade accountability in Delaware courts.

Enemy properties vested with government-appointed custodians are not assets of the central government which cannot seek exemption from paying municipal cess, including house and water taxes, the Supreme Court has held. The verdict was delivered by a bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan on Thursday on an appeal of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation against an Allahabad High Court judgment holding that the civic body cannot seek property taxes from the assessees who are in occupation of an enemy property. The property in question is located on Mahatma Gandhi Marg in Lucknow and was once owned by the 'Raja' of Mahmudabad, Mohammad Amir Ahmed Khan, who had migrated to Pakistan in 1947. However, the son and wife of Khan remained in India and later sought its return after the death of the 'Raja'.

Byju's investors unanimously vote to oust founders, revamp board "As the founders did not participate in the meeting, the quorum was never legitimately established, rendering the resolutions null and void," Byju's said. The edtech company further added, “These resolutions were voted upon without the valid constitution of a quorum, as stipulated in Byju’s Articles of Association.

The scheme, which was proposed to settle civil claims surrounding the suspension of the former Woodford Equity Income fund, was sanctioned by justice Jonathan Richards following a two-day hearing, following which he confirmed there was no reason to contradict the outcome of the scheme vote and sanctioned the scheme of arrangement. Woodford scheme of arrangement sanctioned by High Court He cited the «overwhelming majority» of investors who voted choosing to approve the scheme, with 93.7% by number and 96% by value backing the deal. A total 54,032 creditors participated in the vote, co...

By Joseph Ax

Begum lost a challenge at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in February last year and then took her case to the Court of Appeal. However, the appeal judges unanimously agreed with the special tribunal’s decision and turned down the appeal.

CALGARY — Low-cost airline Lynx Air announced a sudden halt to its operations as of Monday and told customers with bookings after that to seek refunds from their credit card companies.

Almost a year after Florida lawmakers passed a law giving Florida’s governor control over Walt Disney World’s governing district, Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling the takeover a success

A court in Montenegro has ruled that Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon should be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges rather than to his native South Korea

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd on Friday announced the formation of a three-member independent advisory committee aimed at reinstating shareholders' trust. The committee will be chaired by Dr. Satish Chandra, a retired judge from the Allahabad High Court.

the notification issued on Wednesday. The notification added that the “surrogacy using donor gamete is allowed subject to the condition that the child to be born through surrogacy must have at least one gamete from the intending couple". This implies that a couple cannot opt for surrogacy if both the partners have medical problems or are unable to have their own gametes.

In a significant ruling on February 15, the Supreme Court scrapped the Electoral Bonds scheme. A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra delivered a unanimous verdict.

By Xie Yu

Lynx Air says its final flights will take place on Sunday as the company files for creditor protection, less than two years after the low-cost airline took to the skies.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss criminal charges accusing him of illegally holding onto sensitive U.S. national security documents when he left office, arguing the prosecution is legally flawed. Trump has pleaded not guilty to a 40-count indictment in Florida federal court accusing him of illegally retaining classified documents at his Florida resort after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing U.S. government attempts to retrieve them.