About the Author

The book, Emergence of Commercial Justice (Insolvency and Arbitration), is authored by Senior Advocate in Supreme Court of India, Vivek Sood. The author is a Senior Advocate in the Supreme Court of India, with experience in varied law areas, including Criminal Law, Commercial Disputes, Arbitration, Insolvency, Information Technology, Media Law and Constitutional Law.

Vivek Sood

(Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India)

The author is known for giving briefs in complex cases. He has authored four books till today and all of them are blends of contemporary issues strangled with explicit statutes, namely,

• Fundamental Right to the Internet

• Cyber Law Simplified and Cyber Crimes

• Electronic Evidence and Investigation: Legal Issues.

Out of all the books he has authored, one of the books named, Fundamental Right to Internet, stands out as it makes him the first person to coin the term in the year 2011. Apart from penning down regarding the legal issues, he has also been vocal about the same from time to time and is amongst the leading counsels of the Bar Council to call upon these issues. Furthermore, he has also assisted the court as Amicus Curiae in various matters and is promoting DNA evidence in the criminal justice system partnering with Ogilvy (India) and Honeywell (USA).

Book Review

As the title suggests the term “commercial justice”, the entire book revolves around the commercial justice system in India and how it has been neglected over a period of time for safeguarding and focusing more on civil liberties of the people and norms of the society. If the 1991 reforms globalized the Indian economy and brought vibrancy to the corporate sector, the year 2015-2016 can be said to have ushered the concept of ‘commercial justice’ that never existed in India. Before this, the legal system was classified between civil and criminal justice only without any concept of commercial justice which has emerged through two significant legislations- The Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 and The Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015. These legislations are path-breaking and have far-reaching implications for the Indian economy and the business world.

The Supreme Court in a short span of five years has interpreted these legislations in certain important judgements, giving certainty in the scope and application of these laws and the author covers about 20 judgements that deals with insolvency and arbitration. These significant judgements of the Apex Court have been analysed in this book.

In the regime before the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016, the debtors laughed and the creditors cried, in other words, it was a debtors’ paradise and creditors’ hell.

The 2016 legislation brings a paradigm shift in favour of creditors and the Apex Court has reinforced the letter and spirit of the law by its judgements as also the democracy in insolvency resolution through the Committee of Creditors (CoC). The nuances of the law have been analysed in the book through case law as the approach which is taken by the author is certainly based on the case law where the discussion is based on the cases and the statutory sections are mentioned later in the book.

The Apex Court has interpreted the Arbitration & Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 to bring the arbitration law in sync with the global arbitration landscape. The principles of fairness in arbitration as also the minimal interference with arbitral awards have been emphasized by the Supreme Court. Vexed questions that took decades to be decided have been settled in record time to give clarity to the business world.

The book simplifies and demystifies legal complexities through Supreme Court judgements, for the benefit of readers including Law students, young Corporate Lawyers, In-house Corporate Counsel, Company Secretaries and Chartered Accountants. Some of the topics discussed in the books are as follows:

1. From Debtor’s Paradise to ReShaping Economy: Constitutionality and Overview of IBC, 2016

2. Cementing Democracy amongst Creditors

3. Dominating other Statutes

4. Identifying Ineligibility: Piercing the Corporate Veil

5. Distribution amongst Creditors: Equality v/s Commercial Wisdom of CoC

6. Real Estate Victims: Status v/s Financial Creditors

7. Determining Disputed Debts before the Axe Falls

8. Blowing Hot and Hotter: Parallel Remedies for Creditors

9. Rejecting Colonial Law: Parity between Government and Private Entities

10. Amendments in Arbitration Law: Applicability

11. Independence and Impartiality: Healthy Arbitration Environment

12. Power of Nomination: When Infrastructure Collapses, Superstructure Collapses

13. From Paper to Fruitful Awards

14. One Bite at the Cherry: Challenging Foreign Awards

15. Challenging Awards: Settling Vexed Issues

16. Maintainability of Appeals and Seat of Arbitration

The language of the book is very lucid as the author tries to simplify the complex issues and blend them with the statutory provisions to make the reader more comfortable with the listed topics. With Debtor’s Paradise, the author tries to decode the constitutionality of the IBC Code, 2016 and how the Code has pumped blood in the aspect of commercial justice. In the case of Swiss Ribbons, the Supreme Court ushers the concept of commercial justice in the economy as the third category of justice. It has also been stated that it takes almost four years to resolve the cases related to insolvency, which is again the longest time in the entire world, wherever the system has been identified. With the topic of dominating the statutes, the author talks about the conflicting authority of the Code, where he mentions Section 238, in which it has been stated that the provisions of the Code will affect the other laws by the virtue of such law, notwithstanding the inconsistent contained in any other law.

Throughout the entire book, the author has used interesting topics that make the readers about the same ingredients, which further aids in the consistent reading of the book and thus makes the reading journey a roller-coaster ride. Though the book has been written in a case law approach, the author never fails to put up a nourishing explanation to the same. The author at the time has discussed an ample number of topics in the second part of the book, where he talks about arbitration. He has explored various areas of arbitration, starting from the role of Arbitrators and if the person ceases to be an arbitrator, then what will be the process of appointing the next arbitrator. One of the major points highlighted by the author is the role of the managing director in the process of arbitration and the implications behind the same. The book also focuses on the aspect of foreign awards and the involvement of the creditors in the same process. Moreover, this book is meant for all set of readers whether they belong to the legal background or not as it promises to provide good insight into various offshoot topics of insolvency and arbitration.

AMAZON LINK

https://www.amazon.in/Emergence-Commercial-Justice-Insolvency-Arbitration/dp/9390513111

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SNEHAL ASTHANA
Law Intern, Indian Law Watch (March-April, 2021) Sixth Semester, Third Year BA LLB((H) USLLS, GGSIPU. She was an Editor of School News Letter, Milestones, in the year 2017-18. Stood 2nd in 12th std in Humanities and awarded top scorer in Economics. Took part in school debate competition and won first prize and won the prize in self composed poem recitation in school in the year 2015. Took part in the Mock parliament competition and won best speaker award.A research paper presented on the topic “On Line Dispute Resolution-Application" Won first prize in Poetry Competition held by the Abhivyakti Club, USS. Participated in National Client Counseling Competition organized by NorthCap University.