Legal News at Vakilno1.com

Novartis challenges patent rejection in India

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis is about to challenge patent rejection in India before the Supreme Court of India. The court case is to begin on March 28.

The object of special attention a medication used to treat certain cancers, which is marketed by Novartis as Gleevec in USA.

The desired interpretation of patent law would give Novartis a renewal of another twenty years for its patent on the medication. Over six years Novartis has been struggling over different interpretations of article 3(d) of Indian patent law, which rules the patenting of variants of already approved medicines.

On March 28 Novartis will present another interpretation of article 3(d) restricting it to “discoveries”, while the patent application would constitute an “invention”.

12-member Advisory Group introduced by Finance Ministry on International Taxation

Finance Ministry has set up a 12-member advisory group which is headed by the revenue secretary to empower the government to tax corporate deals with retrospective effect.

The committee said that the group can have consultations on emerging issues of taxation in the area of international taxation and transfer pricing.

This group will also advice the government about legislative amendments and administrative measures which will be helpful to reduce tax litigation and bring in more tax certainty.

In Budget 2012-13, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has introduced a retrospective provision in the finance bill that would empower the government to scrutinize corporate transactions from 1962.

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A call for higher age of Retirement for Judges

Former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah on Saturday suggested that the retirement age for Judges of the Supreme Court and High Court be made 65 years with no post-retirement assignments thereafter.

Delivering a lecture organised by the Nani Palkhiwala Foundation and Govind Swaminadhan Trust here, Mr. Shah said some judges, while nearing their retirement, started looking for jobs that were in the hands of the Executive.

Wondering whether it was fair to allow a judge to take up a job after retirement, he suggested that the age of retirement be made 65 years.

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Government proposed legislation to tax overseas merger

The government on Friday proposed legislation that would allow it to tax any overseas merger dating back to 1962 in which an underlying Indian asset was transferred.

This move of the Indian Government would override a comprehensive Supreme Court decision on multinational transactions in January 2012, and is likely to create a pain in the neck for foreign companies that are seeking to do, or have done, deals involving Indian companies.

The tax proposal was part of the finance bill that accompanies the annual Indian budget, which Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed on Friday. However, it will come into effect only when the budget is finalized by Parliament in the coming days, meaning thereby that there is still time for the change of this proposal.

In January, the Supreme Court ruled that Vodafone didn’t have to pay taxes of more than $2 billion on the deal it struck to enter India in 2007, when it acquired a controlling stake in an Indian cell-phone company from Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

The deal was a transaction between Vodafone’s Dutch subsidiary and a Cayman Islands-based company that held Hutchison Whampoa’s India assets. The Court agreed with Vodafone that the deal wasn’t subject to capital gains taxes and Vodafone therefore had no obligation to withhold tax.

The proposed tax law amendment would reverse its effect.

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Law must accept change – Indian Supreme Court Justice says

TheSupreme Court of India’s Justice Swatanter Kumar hold a meeting where he said law must grow with times in order to meet the needs of the social system it serves. He quoted that Our Constitution is a living document which has been subjected to great change and the flexibility of the Constitution of India is praiseworthy.

The Indian constitution has already had 96 amendments which were enacted by the Constituent assembly in November 1949. He said the many amendments are evidence of how our Constitution has adapted to better serve in India.

Kumar said, the most important part of the Constitution of India is Part III – Fundamental Rights.  Similar to the United States Bill of Rights, the section guarantees individual rights such as equality before the law, freedom of speech and expression, and freedom of association and peaceful assembly.

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No political influence in commutation of death: Apex Court

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Wednesday said it will decide on pleas for commuting death sentences to life imprisonment on the grounds of delay purely on the basis of law without being influenced by politics.

“If there are 20 people sentenced to death, then … some must have the support of some group or other… some have no godfather. How do we deal with this?” Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said while hearing a petition by Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, who is on death row, and his wife Navneet Kaur.

Bhullar’s hearing seeking commutation of his death sentence to life term on the grounds of inordinate delay in deciding on his mercy plea will now come up for hearing Oct 18.
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Gujarat minister headed ‘crime syndicate’, apex court told

New Delhi,  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Tuesday told the Supreme Court that former Gujarat minister Amit Shah was the “commander of crime syndicate with some officials of state police as its foot soldiers” who would eliminate crucial witnesses in the 2005 Sohrabuddin Sheikh staged shootout.

The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai was told that at every stage of the investigation, either the witness was made to retract his statement or was eliminated.

Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha referred to the instance of prosecution witness Azam Khan retracting his statement and the alleged staged shootout killing of witness Tulsiram Prajapati to buttress his argument.
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Apex court relief for Himachal on power sharing

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Tuesday said that Himachal Pradesh was entitled to 7.19 percent of the power from the Bhakra-Nangal and Beas hydropower projects and awarded compensation to the hill state.

The compensation, which will be calculated by the central government, would be paid by Punjab and Haryana as the two states were the beneficiaries of the denial of power to Himachal Pradesh over the last few decades.

Himachal Pradesh had sought 12 percent of the power generated by the Bhakra Beas Management Board hydropower projects in the state.
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Supreme court questions government on endosulfan exports

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday asked the central government to state its position on the export of the endosulfan insecticide stocks lying in production units.

The court was hearing a plea seeking a complete ban on production, sale, distribution and use of the farm insecticide blamed for causing ailments in humans.

An apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar said: “On Friday we will hear (the centre) and pass the order.”

The court’s direction to the centre came after the joint expert committee (JEC) set up by it said that the “manufacturers and formulators have export orders of 1,734 MT of endosulfan technical and 292.5 KL of formulation. Hence, these amounts can be exported.”
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Apex court sets terms for bar election

New Delhi,  The Supreme Court Monday said that members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners would not be entitled to either vote or contest the election for the office bearers of the apex body of lawyers.

“The members of the SCBA, whose names do not figure in the final list of regular practitioners, shall not be entitled to either vote for election of the office bearers of the SCBA or to contest any of the posts for which elections would be held by,” said an apex court bench of Justice J.M. Panchal and Justice H.L. Gokhale.

After preparation of the final list of the regular practitioners, each member shall give a written intimation to the association whether he was a member of another court annexed bar, the judgment read.
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