The difference between an employed person and professional is far and wide. A person in normal employment may have a lax attitude towards the updates in the society but professionals can and should never ever be relax to the extent that they lose touch with the changes in the professional realms. Being a CA/CS/CMA professional has a pre requisite. This pre requisite is that, they should be aware of all the changes taking place in their spheres of activity.
This is a part 2 of the earlier article published here
Courts, Judiciary and Tribunals are something that every professional has to deal with sooner or later. Judgements are the outcome of these processes. Therefore it is a must for every professional to be familiar with & to be well read about the court judgments. Every working day, courts in India give out hundreds of judgments which can fill up thousand reams of paper. While it is almost impossible to read each and every judgement, a selected few judgments can definitely add to the knowledge base of any professional.
A judgement is the finest peace of knowledge. Reading a Supreme Court or High court Judgment not only gives you knowledge of law but mends your thinking to real world situations which is very starkly different from what is read in books. Chartered accountants being tax experts can follow Direct and Indirect taxes while Company Secretaries can follow Company law and other allied laws.
Following are the ten judgments that I thought worth sharing with a brief summary. All the judgments can be downloaded from judis.nic.in or any other such court site (or if you have subscription to law portals that will be an added benefit. However I love the formatted PDFs uploaded on judis the most)
These judgments are interesting and may not necessarily be that landmark (but will be useful for sure)
1. The National Judicial Appointments Commission case or the NJAC Case
Citation – Supreme Court Advocates on record Association V. Union of India (Consolidated citation) (Writ petition number 14 of 2015 Supreme Court)
Date of Judgment (Release) – October 16, 2015
Length of Judgment – 1044 Pages, Double spaced PDF
Area of law – Constitutional law
Do not be bogged down by the mammoth size of this judgment. This will be one of the most landmark cases in India’s constitutional history and will have repercussions for times to come. The matter of controversy is not new at all. The same age old tussle betwixt the judiciary and the government (executive) has taken a new form as the NJAC.
What does separation of power mean? What is our constitution’s core value? Is it really the core value or has been superimposed upon us by few?
This judgment offers answer to this question amongst others. The citations go from present days to the days of the British Raj.
The surprise for me was that this judgment did not contain the word ‘anathema’ !
Unless you have a strong appetite for reading, you can skip parts of this while reading. If you can, you will not regret reading each and every syllable of this judgement.
2. The Sasan Power Corporation limited V. North America Coal Corporation India Limited
Citation - The Sasan Power Corporation limited V. North America Coal Corporation India Limited (First appeal 310 of 2015, Madhya Pradesh High court, decided on October 11, 2015)
Length of Judgment – 60 pages, Double spaced PDF
Area of Law – Arbitration law
I found this quite useful due to the fact that this was something which I was myself relating to a few days before. International Contracts usually contain elaborate clauses which seek to move the jurisdiction applicable to a particular contract to a Foreign Jurisdiction. Can an Indian contract be totally subjected to foreign arbitration especially when the language of Section 45 of ARBP act is quite ambiguous? The answer is in affirmative (although the fact that a high court decision is not binding on all the courts)
A good read for a CS / CA Aspirant or professional.
3. Batch of Petitioners ( Preeti Sondarwa and others V. Controller of Examinations, University of Mumbai)
Citation – Writ petition no 3705 of 2015, Original Jurisdiction, Bombay High Court
Length of Judgment – 42 pages
Area of Law – Education Law
As soon as an authority gains a power to enquire and give orders, it has to adhere strictly to the principles of Natural Justice. But what does Principal of Natural Justice really mean? Does the doctrine differ on a case to case basis? What are its common underpinnings? In this interesting petition decided by the Bombay high court in July 2015 involving some students of Mumbai University not fulfilling the mandatory attendance criterion, the High court sheds light on some of these requirements.
It may relate to us, because, let us admit, who really attended college that sincerely? (Engineering students doing MBA do not attend at all) ……….A must read
4. Tata Capital Financial Services Ltd & Others V. Elder Pharmaceuticals
Citation – Company Petition No 961 of 2014, Bombay High Court
Decided on – October 13, 2015 (Final Order)
Area of Law – Company Law
Respondent company failed to was unable to pay debts to various petitioners due to which the various petitioners are seeking a winding up of the company under Section 433 of the Companies Act 1956.
Since the respondent is a listed company and the matter is fairly recent one, a good read of this judgement will help to understand the finer nuances of Company affairs in India ( Work of a CS is much more beyond just form filing)
5. SEBI’s Petition in the matter of Ikisan Limited ( Company Application no 124 of 2013)
Citation - Company Application No. 124 Of 2013
Decided on/ Reserved on - September 10, 2015
Length – 123 pages
Area of Law - Company Law + Listing regulations of SEBI
In a complex series of mergers, demergers and spinoffs, SEBI alleged to have discovered sudden spikes in assets of the resultant company and the board sought to challenge the sanctioned merger petitions previously sanctioned by the BHC in the High court.
A must read for anyone interested in Mergers and Acquisitions. Enough insight into the complexities of Mergers are found in this case. The court finally dismissed the petition by the board with costs.
Very interesting read.
6. Commissioner of Customs Bangalore V. M/S. G.M. Exports & Others
Citation – Supreme Court, 3889 of 2006 amongst others
Decided in – August 2015
Length – 62 pages
Area of Law- Taxation Law
What is the point of levy for countervailing duty in the intervening period of initial ruling and final imposition of countervailing duty in customs law? A judgment rich with cross citations (which can be further added to reading lists), a must read for those who love Taxes.
Much more to come……….That’s it for now
Connect through Linkedin - Rohit Jain
( I believe in the Supreme court doctrine of ‘If you do not like it, do not see it’…….If you find this article to be lacking any value, disinteresting or not enough professionals, my humble request would be that please do not waste your ‘valuable’ time commenting on this. There are much more creative things you can do)
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