Paridhi Poddar
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has recently notified the SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading Regulations), 2015 which has brought major changes to the existing regime on insider trading prohibition. This was an attempt by the SEBI to strengthen the regulatory regime in order to address the problem lack of enforcement that was witnessed in the previous rules. While on the one hand the regulations have clarified various ambiguous provisions, they nonetheless suffer from certain infirmities that would undermine their implementational efficacy. This is because various new concepts have been introduced without sufficiently addressing the legal complexities surrounding them. In this light, this paper aims at analyzing and critiquing these regulations in order to remove possible lacunae that would otherwise allow insiders to evade the process of law.
Prof. (Dr.) A.S. Dalal , Manoj Kumar
Tax evasion is an illegal practice where a person, organization or corporation intentionally avoids paying his/her/it’s true tax liability. Those caught evading taxes are generally subject to criminal charges and substantial penalties. Offshore tax evasion refers to the practice of hiding assets in offshore accounts for the purposes of avoiding paying taxes on the money. The most common offshore tax evasion situations occur in cases where a foreign account has been set up for an individual to “hide” money in, or when a business sets up shell corporations in offshore locations to avoid taxation. Often times, offshore tax evasion structures are highly complex and difficult to get good information on. Even when business do make limited reporting on offshore assets; it is virtually impossible to tell if that reporting is accurate. Tax haven is a country that offers foreign individuals and businesses little or no tax liability in a politically and economically stable environment. Tax havens also provide little or no financial information to foreign tax authorities. Individuals and businesses that do not reside a tax haven can take advantage of these countries’ tax regimes to avoid paying taxes in their home countries. Tax havens do not require that an individual reside in or a business operate out of that country in order to benefit from its tax policies. In reference to India, As per an estimate made by Global Financial Integrity, about $462 billion worth of black money has been sneaked out of India between 1948 and 2008, most of which has apparently gone into tax havens. Black money is basically the income on which tax has been evaded and tax havens are territories which provide a safe and easy environment for money to come in.
Keywords – Offshore, Tax Havens, Tax Evasion, Black Money, Global Financial Integrity
Dr. (Mrs.) Jyoti Rattan
Out of all other punishments, the death penalty has become one of the most controversial and debatable issue under the criminal justice system. Since World War II, efforts have been made for abolishing the death penalty. Article 6 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), 1966 mentions various restriction in awarding death penalty, whereas the second Optional Protocol, 1989 to the ICCPR, 1966 directs the States to abolish death penalty. The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been trying to resolve this issue for the past decades.1 In June 2014, the UN general assembly adopted a Resolution2 discussing the Report of UN Secretary General where the report confirms that the trend towards the universal abolition of the death penalty is continuing. However, both international and national law provide for amnesty. The Report of UN Secretary General have shown that most of death penalty retentionist Countries have introduced temporary moratorium (suspension) on the application of the death penalty and expressly called for the imposition of prison terms instead of the death penalty. India has not ratified the OP II, 1989 and as a retentionist Country it has various statutes mentioning death penalty. As India has ratified the ICCPR, 1966, therefore, Indian law regarding death penalty is in tune with this international instrument. Further, Indian Judiciary has played commendable role to ensure that awarding or execution of death penalty or granting amnesty must be constitutional. This article is a humble attempt to make in-depth study of international and national scenario of death penalty with special reference to India.
Key words—World War II, ICCPR, 1966, the second Optional Protocol, 1989, retentionist Country, abolitionist country.
Siddiqui Saima Jarrar Alam
Retention or abolition of death penalty has always attracted contentiously sensitive debates in India. Debates favouring retention of death penalty often rely on deterrence, victim’s satisfaction or protection of society from criminals to retain such punishment; on the other hand, those negating it often invoke the arguments of progressive penology, failure of deterrence theory or worst abuse of human rights of convict to name some. As a dynamic society and working legal system, India needs to take a cogent stand on the fate of death penalty under the criminal justice system. Sham believes and advocacies that look at death penalty as best form of revenge, vengeance or example for others does not take us too far in course of analysis on retention of death penalty in India. On the contrary, sound reasoning on purpose of punishment, proper remedies for victims on case-to-case basis, reformation of accused and protection of societal interests forms some pragmatic measures to determine the punishment of convicts. Such measures strongly support and justify the end of death sentence in India. Currently, India is amongst the only 59 out of 193 countries that have retained death penalty. It is high-time that India should abide by the concrete empirical findings which suggest that death penalty is absolutely independent of crime-rate. Jurisprudentially and morally, taking life as punishment, does not serve the cause of justice and societal interest.
Keywords—death penalty, penology, deterrence theory, criminal justice system, human right
Shubham Aparajita
India always needed a better investigative powers and tools to combat insider trading, says some analysts and former regulators. The country can boast of a dynamic capital with appropriate legal provision and an efficient regulatory place. The only thing need to be observed is that all actions are required to be pragmatic rather than a provision included in any law for the sake of it to be amended later.1 While insider trading was tough to detect and prove in any country, in India it seems to be particularly rampant because regulators just don’t have the tools to keep it in check With an intention to overcome with the inadequacies of the previous Regulations, SEBI has revamped the entire framework governing insider trading in India. The introduction of the Regulations, the scope of who an ‘insider’ or a ‘connected person’ is, will stand significantly widened. Therefore, any person, whether or not related to the company, may come within the purview of the Regulations if he is expected to have access or possess UPSI3. Applicability of the Regulations shall extend to UPSI in relation to a company as well as securities listed or proposed to be listed on a stock exchange. SEBI has overhauled the entire framework for regulation of insider trading, which is seen to be a deep rooted problem in India, with a view to ensure a level-playing field in the securities market and to safeguard the interest of the investors. This move by SEBI will provide a much-needed boost to Indian capital market and facilitate further economic buoyancy.
Akshi Narula
Small Banks in India have a small capital base, function in a specific area and lend to small borrowers. Small banks will help in improving the mobility of funds in the thus far deprived areas. The study of discussion paper released by the Reserve Bank of India (Hereinafter referred as RBI) on 27th August 2013, the reports by various other planning Commissions, speeches by the Governor of the RBI unveil that the step to establish and recognize the concept of Small Financial Banks was obvious. A reform to support the people or groups who faced difficulty in approaching the Universal Banks due to financial constraints was required and much awaited.
This step will not only solve the problem of financial inclusion but will give opportunities to the people or groups which fail to excel due to the problems of non-availability of funds and will help the Banking System of India. The RBI has recently licensed banks which aimed at providing loans to women borrowers from weaker sections, under-banked households, develop NGOs and community based organizations. This step can further be accompanied by more area specific banks which work in the elevation of the economy which the article aims to study.
This paper shall closely analyze the nature of small banks and their role in the Indian economy.
Keywords—Small Banks in India, RBI, Niche Banking, Financial Inclusion.
Prasad, Ganesh and Sanjay Khan
Insider trading is a rampant market phenomena which has gained global legal consideration by most of the major economies. The previous Indian regulations of 1992, which were considered ineffectual and incongruent in accordance with the present market scheme, were revamped and replaced by the new 2015 regulations notified this January. These changes are mostly based on the report of the N.K. Sodhi committee on insider- trading which submitted its report in 2013. Also, the new regulations also have been implemented in light of the recent judicial pronouncements, which have espoused insider-trading laws in accordance with prevailing market realities, and put them in line with global standards. This standardisation and revamping has been done primarily through definitional changes and some minor procedural overhauling by giving a more balanced basis to the companies and personals alleged for insider trading violations. In this paper, the authors will delve into an in- depth comparative analysis of the 2015 regulations with respect to the previous 1992 regulations. Also, the insider trading regulations in other jurisdictions will be analysed. Through this, an attempt will be made to cull out the improvements and deficiencies of the new insider-trading regime.
