India is believed to have challenged in a court in The Hague an arbitration tribunal verdict that overturned its demand for Rs 10,247 crore in back taxes from Cairn Energy Plc -- the second time in three months that it has refused to accept an international award against retrospective tax.
When the IAF veterans' bail petition came up for hearing, in an unprecedented move, senior serving and retired Air Marshals and Air Vice Marshals rallied behind the accused officers and appeared before the court to give sureties for each, something that has never happened ever before.
The apex court directed Mallya, who is currently in the United Kingdom, to appear before it on July 10 to argue on the quantum of punishment in the matter.
Goa Children's Court Judge Vandana Tendulkar acquitted Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho of all the charges in the eight-year-long high profile death case.
Most political leaders in Punjab have come out in the open to oppose him, unlike the early 1980s when political leaders were scared of speaking against Bhindranwale, observes Sudhir Bisht.
Mallya's lawyer said he wants to return, but a British court has prohibited him from leaving the UK without its permission.
UK's Cairn Energy Plc plans to bring lawsuits in the US and other countries to pierce the corporate veil between the Indian government and its owned companies such as in oil and gas, shipping, airline and banking sectors, to seize their overseas assets to recover $1.2 billion ordered by an international arbitration tribunal. The firm has moved courts in the US, UK, Canada, France, Singapore, the Netherlands and three other countries to register the December 2020 arbitration tribunal ruling that overturned the Indian government's Rs 10,247 crore demand in back taxes and ordered New Delhi to return $1.2 billion in value of shares it had sold, dividends seized and tax refunds withheld to recover the tax demand. With the government so far refusing to honour the arbitration award and instead choosing to challenge it, Cairn is looking to enforce it by seizing overseas Indian assets, Dennis Hranitzky, head of the sovereign litigation practice at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a law firm representing the company, told PTI.
The Indian government has paid Cairn Energy Plc Rs 7,900 crore to refund taxes it had collected to enforce a retrospective tax demand, ending a seven-year-old dispute that had tarred the country's image as an investment destination. The company, which is now known as Capricorn Energy PLC, in a statement said it has received "net proceeds of $1.06 billion", of which nearly 70 per cent will be returned to the shareholders. The tax department had used a 2012 legislation, which gave it powers to go back 50 years and slap capital gains levies wherever ownership had changed hands overseas but business assets were in India, to seek Rs 10,247 crore in taxes from Cairn.
Now, the Delhi high court will hear the matter on January 18.
The central probe agency issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for attachment of Indian assets in Kodaikanal and Ooty in Tamil Nadu and a flat in Delhi's Jorbagh. A cottage and house in Somerset in the UK and a tennis club located in Barcelona, Spain have also been attached as part of the same order, the agency said.
Following the October 24 Supreme Court order, the department of telecom estimated that the total liability of 15 telecom companies, including penalties and interest, would be Rs 1.47 lakh crore.
British lawmakers will debate the issue of press freedom and safety of protesters in India next Monday in response to an e-petition which had crossed the 100,000-signature threshold required for such a debate, the House of Commons Petitions Committee confirmed on Wednesday.
During the course of the hearing last month, it emerged that Modi had made death threats to witnesses and also attempted to destroy evidence such as mobile phones and a server holding "material critical to the fraud".
Jayalalithaa was the third chief minister in Tamil Nadu to die in office, after her mentor M G Ramachandran (1987) and before that his mentor C N Annadurai (1969). The state government should have evolved protocols for the medical care of the incumbent, and institutional memory should have guided the government and officials in the matter, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justic P K Bahsin also called all the relevant documents to be submitted in the court.
Moving quickly towards ending a retrospective tax dispute with a firm that gave India its largest oilfield, the government has accepted Cairn Energy PLC's undertakings which would allow for the refund of taxes, sources said. Meeting the requirements of the new legislation that scraps levy of retrospective taxation, the company had earlier this month given required undertakings indemnifying the Indian government against future claims as well as agreeing to drop any legal proceedings anywhere in the world. The government has now accepted this and issued Cairn a so-called Form-II, committing to refund the tax collected to enforce the retrospective tax demand, two sources with direct knowledge of the development said.
Amber Heard has won part of her libel case against Johnny Depp. The jury has awarded her $2 million in damages.
Jaishankar said the world has experienced its consequences in terms of higher costs and shortages of foodgrains and fertilizers and fuel.
Once such a notice is issued against a fugitive, the Interpol asks its 192-member countries to arrest or detain the person if spotted in their countries after which extradition or deportation proceedings can begin.
Speaking to reporters Mallya said, "It will all become clear in court".
A three-member Bench of the court ruled that the order by the Department of Health regarding employment of doctors on the High-Skilled Migrant Programme was not lawful, after a 16-month-long legal battle led by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.
An Indian-origin conman was on Wednesday found guilty of murdering a millionaire oil executive in her central London flat to fund his gambling habits. Rakesh Bhayani from Wembley in north-west London was convicted at the Old Bailey court in London for the murder of Carole Waugh, who had disappeared from her Marylebone flat in May 2012.
Cash-strapped telco Vodafone Idea's proposal for investment of up to Rs 15,000 crore through foreign direct investment (FDI) has been approved by the Union government, according to officials. A top-level group, comprising representatives from the ministries of home affairs, external affairs, finance and commerce and industry, took the decision. The nod, which is an enabling provision, would help the financially-stressed company raise funds to pay up some of its dues linked to adjusted gross revenue (AGR), reduce debts and use the money for operational expenses.
A debt recovery tribunal in India ruled that Rs 6,200 crore of Vijay Mallya's dues -- Rs 5,000 crore as principal and Rs 1,200 crore as interest -- was payable. Mallya claims that out of the sum due, Rs 3,000 crore had already been recovered by the claimants.
An Indian trio -- a solicitor and his two wives -- have been jailed in London for their alleged involvement in the biggest ever visa scam in the United Kingdom. A city court on Wednesday sentenced Jatinder Kumar Sharma, 44, and his second wife Rakhi Shahi, 31, for seven and eight years respectively for running a fraud firm called Univisas, where they helped hundreds of immigrants apply for visas using bogus documents and false identities.
The bribes were paid by several international companies, including Errostaal of Germany and India's Tata as part of Abacha's 'system of systematic corruption, according to the Swiss sentencing order, a copy of which FT claims to have obtained.
The Kalrock-Jalan consortium - new owners of Jet Airways - has got an assurance from around 30 airports that if the airline restarts operations, 170 pairs of slots can be made available. However, whether those slots will be according to the airline's demand will depend on the order of the insolvency court, which is slated to come next week. Sources said the new management feels it is extremely important that some of those slots are restored or else its business plan of operating Jet as a premium carrier will not be viable.
Why does the world's fastest-growing major consumer of energy fail to attract investments in oil and gas? This is a question worth pondering after private sector conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) failed to close a $15-billion downstream asset deal with Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Aramco. It's understandable if multi-billion dollar investments in oil and gas projects or deals involving state companies that need to traverse a complex bureaucracy at state and federal levels and the corridors of ministries unravel. However, Mukesh Ambani-run RIL, India's most successful energy company, is not typically known to fumble on closing deals (Ambani closed deals worth around Rs 2 trillion early last year in telecom and retail with blue chip investors).
An Indian-origin cardiologist, who set up spy cameras in bathrooms to record images of his women colleagues, has been ordered to a 10-year sex offender treatment programme.
Vodafone Idea, which reported a loss of Rs 6,439 crore in the December quarter, said it had received letters from the department of telecommunications (DoT) directing immediate payment of dues amounting to Rs 54,000 crores after the SC judgment. "The company is currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to DoT towards the dues calculated based on AGR, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in its order dated October 24, 2019. The company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days," it stated.
Unless the judges factor in the ungovernability of technologies and their beneficial owners, present and future Presidents, prime ministers, judges, legislators and officials handling sensitive assignments may become redundant with reference to their age-old roles for securing 'national resources and assets', warns Dr Gopal Krishna.
China's stand is that relevant parties should find a solution internally.
Hours after A Q Khan's release from house arrest, Britain on Friday asked Pakistan to grant International Atomic Energy Agency access to the disgraced atomic scientist to question him on his proliferation activities, particularly transferring nuclear know-how to countries like Iran and North Korea.
During a series of hectic talks between Cairn Energy and the Indian government over the $1.2-billion arbitration award in favour of the former last week, a slew of options was proposed by the two sides, including computation of capital gains and participation in the Vivad se Vishwas (VsV) dispute resolution scheme. The government is likely to go ahead and appeal against the arbitration award by a Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague before March 21, indicated finance ministry officials. Cairn Energy Plc on Sunday said it was hopeful that an acceptable solution to its tax dispute with the Indian government could be found to avoid prolonging and exacerbating the 'negative issue' for all parties.
Russian fertiliser group Uralkali said that by turning down its higher bid for the company, the administrators had denied the extra funds that would have accrued to the shareholder of Force India - Mallya's Orange India Holdings Sarl - which is subject to a freezing order issued by the UK's High Court in favour of his 13 creditor Indian banks, led by the State Bank of India.
In a series of tweets reacting to banks led by State Bank of India taking over management control of troubled Jet Airways, Mallya said, "...Only wish the same was done for Kingfisher".
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2020.
Rahul knew this was coming. That 'dirt' would be dug up.
Sebi has now proposed that the Companies Act should also clearly mention that a person should vacate the office of a director if it orders his or her disqualification.