The Corporate Law Cell, founded in September 2009, is a student run body overseen by faculty in-charge Mrs. Smita Sabne. The Cell, since its first academic year (2009 -2010) has grown by leaps and bounds.
The vision of the Corporate Law Cell for the academic year 2016-2017 was to familiarise the students with basic concepts of Corporate and Commercial Laws along with identifying and examining various issues under discussion in today’s corporate world. This year, the Cell intended to facilitate better comprehension of corporate laws among students through events, competitions etc. to supplement regular classroom learning experience.
The activities undertaken by the Cell this year are-
Extempore Moot Court Competition- Edition IV:- To identify and nourish advocacy skills among the students of ILS Law College especially in the arena of Corporate Laws, the Corporate Law Cell organised an Extempore Moot Court Competition on 30th August, 2016. The limited working time frame was an attraction as usual.
Amogh Diwan, Afreen Abbassi, Divyanshu Sharma, Gauri Shidaye, Mohith Gauri, and Ram Kishore drafted five moot problems for the competition based on Law of Contracts, Arbitration, and Competition Law while Adv. Deepakar Livingston drafted the moot proposition for the finals on Contract Law and Specific Relief Act.
The problems were released four hours before the preliminary round and the finalists were expected to argue a new moot case which was released one hour before the final round of the competition. The competition was met with an enthusiastic response and saw a participation of more than 70 students from various batches. The preliminary round of the competition was judged by Vth B.S.L, LL.B and IIIrd LL.B students. The final round of the competition for was judged by Adv. Alkesh Agarwal who was a Founder Partner at ARP Associates, is currently Partner of Lex Vid Partners, a Bhopal based law firm.
The winners of the competition were:
1st position- Indraneel Godsay (IIIrd B.A, L.L.B)
2nd position- Saurav Roy (IIIrd B.A, L.L.B)
3rd position- Nikhil Dubey (IInd B.A, L.L.B)
This year the cell tried to incentivize participation by giving away books as prizes to the winners. The winner, first runner up and second runner up received the following books as prizes- Law relating to Arbitration and Conciliation by P.C Markanda, Gower and Davies on Company Law, Pollock and Mulla on the Indian Contract Act and Securities Regulation by Anil Chaudhary and Rajneesh Deka.
The response was overwhelming and the Cell plans to continue organising it in the coming years as well.
Regular Tuesday Sessions:- The Cell has been organising regular sessions every Tuesday. These sessions have been on the following topics-
- Recent developments in Corporate Laws
The Cell started its sessions this year by taking two sessions on recent developments in the corporate law by covering two- three happenings in various sectors such as Competition law, Taxation, FDI, Real Estate and Capital Markets. Parmeet Batra, Yalini Ravi, Stephanie Nazareth, Amala Maria George and Vivek Hegde covered the various sectors respectively. This session aimed at explaining in short the basic concepts related to the news items and keeping the students up-to-date with recent happenings. - Indirect Tax Regime in India
A session was conducted by Kumar Sambhav (Vth B.S.L, L.L.B) on the current tax regime in India so as to give the students a basic understanding of the various taxation concepts such as ‘cascading effect’, tax credit system etc. This session built a base for the students to understand more effectively the next session on the Goods and Services Tax. - Goods and Services Tax overview
Mr. Ameya Kunte founder of TaxSutra took two consecutive sessions Goods and Services Tax. He dealt with the Goods and Services Tax Bill in detail in light of the passing of the Goods and Service Tax bill in Parliament. He cleared dealt with the framework of the proposed GST and cleared doubts of the students. The session had a fantastic turnout from across batches and was an interactive session. - A primer on Mergers and Acquisitions
This session was conducted by Gokul Thampi from Vth B.S.L, LL.B. Since Mergers and Acquisition transactions form a very important part of Corporate Law, the session concentrated on providing a primer on Mergers and Acquisitions, mainly targeting students of the first and second year. The concepts of Mergers and Acquisitions, the difference between private and public mergers, different regulations and laws which come into the picture in an M&A transaction were explained. The session was useful in giving an introduction about the law to those who had little idea about it and was very well appreciated by all the participating students. - Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association
This session was conducted by Amogh Diwan of IInd year LLM who has also completed his Company Secretary course. He took a comprehensive session on the two most important, legal documents of a company- the Memorandum of Association and the Articles of Association. He discussed in detail the various clauses of the documents and essential provisions which should be incorporated in these documents. The session gave a good overview of the importance and drafting considerations of the documents. - Workshop on Deadly Internship Assignments:
The aim of the workshop was to familiarise students with research techniques that could prove to be useful for them while working on internship assignments. Students were divided into twelve groups and each group was given a query based on varied commercial laws such as Contract Law, Company Law, Consumer Protection Act, Competition Law, Taxation and DTAAs. Each group was required to give a presentation and prepare a note on the query given to them, identifying the issue, the provisions of law applicable and the legal position with respect to the issue. The time allotted for the exercise was 30 minutes. All the students who attended the session successfully prepared and presented a note. - Vertical Agreements in Competition Law
This session was conducted by Parmeet Bara from IV B.S.L, L.L.B. He covered the basics of the Competition Act, 2002. He exhaustively explained the concept of vertical agreements with respect to the Indian law as well as EU law with examples. The session covered the existing provisions in the Competition Act, 2002 with respect to vertical agreements. - TATA controversy
This session was conducted by Mr. Gaurav Pingle who is a practicing Company secretary and visiting faculty in our college. The session was a discussion on the recent TATA controversy with respect to corporate governance and provisions relating to Board meetings, appointment and removal of directors, petition for oppression and mismanagement. The session updated the students on one of the most controversial happenings in the Corporate sector and discussed the legal issues and possible future legal implications of the controversy. - Corporate Laws and Business Quiz
The Corporate Law Cell organized a combined session with the ILS Quiz Club which was met with great enthusiasm from the participants. A quiz on Corporate Laws and Business events was conducted by Omkar Dhakephalkar. The Quiz Master divided the participants into teams of two, and the quiz was divided into various rounds including a highly competitive rapid fire round. The quiz was an innovative and fun way to learn certain Corporate Law topics and recent happenings in the Business Sector. - Guide to placements and PPO’s
This was a very interactive session, where students from the fifth year who have been handpicked by some of the top law firms and companies in the country by pre placement offers and college placements. The Cell saw a very good turnout for this session and the students found it very useful where they took back some useful tips regarding internships and placements.
Colloquium on the Contemporary Issues in the Financial Sector:- The first edition of the Colloquium which took place in 2016 was a grand success and attracted 300 students from various law schools across India. Inspired by this overwhelming response the Corporate Law Cell organised the 2nd edition of the Colloquium – ‘Colloquium 2.0.’
The Colloquium 2.0 hosted eminent speakers from the Corporate law fraternity who interacted with the students on the three topics. The speakers included Dr. Pradeep Apte, Mr. Rajesh Simhan, Ms. Aditi Sharma, Mr. Ashish Mehta, Mr. Nilanjan Sinha and Mr. Somasekhar Sundaresan.
This year the Colloquium 2.0 entailed three sessions involving discussions on-
- Panel Debate on Abolition of Income Tax in light of introducing the Banking Transaction Tax and the Goods and Services Tax.
- Regulatory and competitive challenges in the Banking Sector
- Deconstructing the Takeover Code.
- Orientation for the Colloquium 2.0 on the Contemporary Issues in the Financial Sector
The members of the Cell organized an orientation session in order to introduce the students to the basics of the three topics mentioned above.
The Cell in this academic year successfully organised various events and sessions which saw a good turnout and generated an appreciable interest in Corporate Laws.
The Corporate Cell’s day to day functioning in 2016-17 was managed by the following students-
- Gokul Thampi (V B.S.L LL.B)
- Tanisha Bhatia (V B.S.L LL.B)
- Parmeet Batra (IV B.S.L LL.B)
- Yalini Ravi (IV B.S.L LL.B)
- Vivek Hegde (IV B.S.L LL.B)
- Amala Maria George (III B.A LL.B)
- Stephanie Nazareth (III B.A LL.B)