A British court on Monday granted a bankruptcy order against Vijay Mallya, paving the way for a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to pursue a worldwide freezing order to seek repayment of debt owed by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. "As at 15.42 [UK time], I shall adjudicate Dr Mallya bankrupt," Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs said in his ruling during a virtual hearing of the Chancery Division of the high court. "I have to decide if there is a real prospect of payment of petition debt in full within a reasonable period of time... there is insufficient evidence that [Mallya's asset realisations in India] will pay the debt in full within a reasonable period of time," Judge Briggs noted, in reference to defence arguments pointing to a restoration process in India following a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court order for the attachment of Mallya's assets.
The Madras high court has ordered the winding up of private carrier SpiceJet Limited and directed the official Liquidator attached to the high court to take over its assets, in a plea filed by a Swiss company over unpaid dues. The court was allowing a company petition from Credit Suisse AG, a stock corporation registered under the laws of Switzerland, which prayed for winding up of the Indian firm under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and appoint the Official Liquidator of the high court as the liquidator with all powers under Section 448 of the Companies Act to take charge of SpiceJet's assets, properties, stock in trade and books of accounts. The "respondent company (SpiceJet) has miserably failed to satisfy the three pronged test suggested by the Supreme Court in Mathusudan Govardhandas & Co v Madhu Woollen Industries (P) Ltd, and hence had rendered itself liable to be wound up for its inability to pay its debts under Section 433 (e) of the Companies Act 1956," Justice R Subramanian said in his order on Monday and directed the private carrier be wound up and the official liquidator take over its assets.
Monday saw the Sensex post its weakest closing since July 11 when it settled at 36,265.93. In the previous four sessions the index had lost 1,249.04 points.
The broader NSE Nifty, on the other hand, ended 2.70 points, or 0.02 per cent, lower at 11,555.90 in its third straight day of losses.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday reiterated that an international arbitration ruling on India's sovereign right to taxation sets the wrong precedent, but said the government is looking at how best it can sort out the issue arising out of New Delhi being ordered to return $1.2 billion plus interest and cost to UK's Cairn Energy Plc. The government, which participated in an international arbitration brought by the Scottish firm against being taxed retrospectively, has appealed against The Hague based tribunal's ruling asking the government to return the value of shares expropriated and liquidated, tax refunds withheld and dividend seized to recover a wrongly levied retroactive tax demand.
'Any future course of action towards active participation in the alliance when formed would need a lot of deliberation, long term vision and should be in our best national interests,' notes Commodore Vengalil Venugopal (retd).
The Chinese media has accused India of using the Dalai Lama card to deal with China's growing economic and political influence in South Asia and warned New Delhi of "severe consequences" if it hosted the Tibetan spiritual leader in a "disputed" area in Arunachal Pradesh.
It is hard to escape the feeling that solving the problems of 2020 and 2021 will require something special which at the moment is not on view, observes Aakar Patel.
There is no reason for keeping an entire ministry with a total staff strength of 2,300, just for the oversight of a few aviation sector laws and regulatory bodies, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Meetings to break the deadlock have been planned.
Caught in a web of half truths, the Sheena Bora murder case continues to baffle investigators. Here are the top developments of the day.
Gautam Adani, who is diversifying into many businesses, saw a 48 per cent rise in his wealth to Rs 1.40 lakh crore and moved up two places in rankings to being the fourth richest Indian. Hinduja Brothers and HCL's Shiv Nadar were ranked 2nd and 3rd. Wipro's Azim Premji slipped two places to fifth place.
Liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya on Friday made an urgent application before the UK High Court seeking access to millions of pounds to cover his living expenses and legal fees from funds held with the Court Funds Office as part of bankruptcy proceedings, initiated by a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India. Deputy Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Robert Schaffer declined to allow a draw down from the court-held funds of an estimated amount of around 1.5 million pounds, accrued from the sale of Mallya's French luxury property Le Grand Jardin earlier this year, until further arguments in the case. However, he did allow the release of 240,000 pounds plus VAT to cover the legal costs of a substantive hearing in the bankruptcy proceedings scheduled for next Friday.
The verdict, upholding Centre's November 15, 2019, notification bringing personal guarantors of corporate debtors under the net of the IBC, assumes significance in view of the fact that various high-profile industrialists may now face insolvency proceedings along with their debt-ridden firms under the IBC.
Was Kerkar duped by his employees, as he claims, or did a cocktail of greed, poor cost control and bad management bring the travel firm down, wonder Pavan Lall and Aneesh Phadnis.
Finance firms in these SEZs likely to get tax breaks.
All four societies were under common management of the Sahara group and had collectively garnered Rs 86,673 crore, including more than Rs 47,000 crore collected by Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd from nearly 4 crore depositors.
Modi's hardline policy towards Pakistan and J&K has created numerous leverages and bargaining positions that New Delhi can bring to the bargaining table and translate into concessions, argues Ajai Shukla.
Experts say Biyani will now become a contract manufacturer of fashion and FMCG products, with the Reliance group being one of his customers.
"This august forum witnessed a new low on its 75th anniversary. The leader of Pakistan today called for those who incite hate and violence to be outlawed. But as he went on, we were left wondering, was he referring to himself?" First Secretary in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Mijito Vinito said, making India's Right of Reply.
Analysts have pointed out that with the dues arising out of the SC judgment there could soon be only two private telcos in the country, and not three - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - as now.
IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath also said the pickup in global growth for 2020 remains highly uncertain as it relies on improved growth outcomes for stressed economies like Argentina, Iran, and Turkey and for under-performing emerging and developing economies such as Brazil, India, and Mexico.
After Air India, Britain's Cairn Energy PLC plans to target assets of state-owned firms and banks in countries from the US to Singapore as it looks to ramp up efforts to recover the amount due from the Indian government after winning an arbitration against levy of retrospective taxes. A lawyer representing the company said Cairn will bring lawsuits in several countries to make state-owned firms liable to pay the $1.2 billion plus interest and penalties that are due from the Indian government. Last month, Cairn brought a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York pleading that Air India is controlled by the Indian government so much that they are 'alter egos' and the airline should be held liable for the arbitration award.
Vodafone is locked in twin tax disputes with the government.
Under pressure from all quarters after Indian men's hockey team chief coach Terry Walsh's sudden resignation because of a "pay dispute", the Sports Authority of India sprang into action with its DG Jiji Thomson assuring that the matter will "resolved" between the aggrieved parties.
The I-T department had issued re-assessment notice in March 2015 to the media group after noting that Rs 642 crore has allegedly not been computed for the tax assessment purposes of NDTV for financial year 2007-2008.
Four Hinduja brothers -- Srichand, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok -- had in 2014 signed on a document saying the assets held by one brother belong to all, and that each of them will appoint the others as their executors. But now family patriarch Srichand Hinduja, 84, and his daughter Vinoo want the letter to be declared of "no legal effect" and the family's assets be separated as per his wish of 2016.
LVB had faced some serious flak in terms of bad loans, earnings and credit rating downgrades, since 2016.
The new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has serious drawbacks, finds out Somasekhar Sundaresan.
'So we are missing players. Evin Lewis just decided to push back on a central contract. He is good enough to play Test cricket. So the shorter versions of the game curtail our progress. Having said that, it would be unfair to blame the players for making the choice (of playing IPL). We all want to be financially secure at the end of the day'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission to introduce in a phased manner the paper trail in EVMs in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saying "it is an indispensable requirement of free, fair and transparent" polls which will restore confidence of the voters.
The Pakistan Cricket Board on Thursday announced that it would file a compensation case against the BCCI before the ICC Disputes Resolution Committee for India's refusal to play Pakistan in bilateral series.
The Sheena Bora murder mystery has seen more twists than a television sitcom. As skeletons continue to tumble out, here are the latest developments in the case.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said it is concerned over dilution of RBI's autonomy with the passage of a Bill that seeks to create a joint mechanism for resolution of disputes between different financial regulators.
Anticipating a sudden and huge crowd in bank branches following the announcement of various measures by the government on Friday, the AIBEA said since the number of employees in bank branches are very few, the crowds can pose a big risk for the bank staff as well as for the customers who might be visiting in large numbers.
Rohit makes his way back into Test squad for Sri Lanka series
'We have learnt lessons from Mamata Banerjee who overcame the BJP's canard by reciting Chandi Path and playing up her Brahmin origins in her campaign. We need to adopt strategies like asking Muslims to lie low and distributing tickets prudently so that we are not accused of favouring one community.' Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
Based on internal evaluation and legal opinion, the management was of the opinion that the company has the ability to ultimately recover the aforesaid ICDs
'Even before the outbreak of the flu, it had become clear that the tax revenue numbers for 2019-2020 were overestimated,' observes A K Bhattacharya.
After 16 increasingly frantic days that tried the faith of the financial markets in the United States' institutional soundness, the US Congress has finally agreed on a deal that would postpone a showdown on federal government spending and borrowing for a while.
