“An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation!” ­– Joseph Grynbaum The Ministry of Law and Justice on November 5th 2021 released the Draft Mediation Bill 2021[1] (”Bill”) and invited public comments and consultation. The Draft Mediation Bill lays down several objectives including promotion, encouragement and facilitation of […]

E-commerce and Consumer Protection Act, 2019: Impact on the Consumer ‘Transparency’ and ‘Accountability’ are the fundamentals of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (“Act”) that came into force on 20 July 2020. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution notified slew of Consumer Protection (E-commerce)  Rules, 2020 (“Rules”) under the Act for the growth […]

The Role of Mediation in Consumer Dispute Resolution: Consumer Protection Act 2019 “An ounce of mediation is worth a pound of arbitration and a ton of litigation!” - Joseph Grynbaum The much-awaited Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (“Act”) was given assent by the President of India on 09th August 2019 and came in force from 20th […]

Healthcare Not Classified as Service in the New CPA 2019 The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (‘CPA 2019’) arrived in full glory and the Central government vide notification dated 15-07-2020[1] appointed 20-07-2020; and thereafter vide notification dated 23-07-2020[2] appointed 24-07-2020 to be the dates on which provisions of CPA 2019 shall come into force. It is […]

The first consumer protection legislation Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (‘old act’) was introduced with the primary objective of protecting consumer rights. However, with the advent of technology and the introduction of e-commerce and various other mechanisms of conducting business, an overhaul of the existing legislation seemed necessary and prudent in order to better protect modern-day […]

Legal Recourse for Employers if Employee Threatens Suicide During the Covid-19 situation, employers are faced with severe financial stress, which has led a few of them to resort to certain calculated actions that affects employees, including reducing salaries, reducing holidays, putting employees on the bench, loss of pay, lay offs, furloughs and in extreme cases, […]

Payment Waiver A Much Required Relief to the SEZs by the GOI The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has rapidly spread across the globe and has now become the biggest health crisis affecting billions of lives worldwide. This outbreak has fast morphed into an economic crisis adversely affecting several business operations. In order to tackle […]

Essential Services and Goods During COVID 19 Lock down Covid-19 has brought forth a lot of challenges to the Government of India. One of the primary challenges is to make people stay at home, at the same time ensuring that there is no shortage of essential goods and services. For this to be achieved, the […]