Former Vodafone senior vice president legal Nitin Banerjee has joined Indian energy major Cairn Oil & Gas to replace Vidyut Gulati as its group general counsel (GC), as first reported by PTI.

India said it may seize Vodafone Group Plc’s assets in the country if the company doesn’t pay a disputed 142-billion-rupee ($2.1 billion) tax bill that’s still undergoing international arbitration proceedings, according to a copy of the notice that was sent to the company this month. Anil Sant, depu...

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*Vodafone has become a shorthand for Indian tax troubles, but in the last year or so, it has won several important high court decisions (though not for lack of resistance from government lawyers).

The Bombay high court on Thursday quashed an order of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) which had ruled that the IT Department had powers to raise a tax demand on telecom giant Vodafone India in a Rs 8,500 crore transfer pricing case. In a terse statement, Vodafone India “welcomed” the high c...

The government Wednesday decided not to contest a Bombay high court ruling that telecom major Vodafone was not liable to pay tax demand of Rs. 3,200 crore in a transfer pricing case, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said and hoped that the decision would boost foreign investors’ se...

The Bombay high court Tuesday ruled in favour of the Indian arm of Royal Dutch Shell on two transfer-pricing adjustments made by the income tax department - of Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore for 2007-08 and 2008-09, respectively - to the taxable income of Shell India Markets Pvt Ltd (SIMPL). BMR...

Bombay high court chief justice Mohit Shah and Justice MS Sanklecha ruled in favour Vodafone India Services in its Rs 3,200 crore transfer pricing tax case, deciding that there was no taxable income on share premium received on the issue of shares to their parent companies, reported Mint and others....

A Delhi high court judgment has ruled against the Income Tax Department but in effect upped the pressure on other Mauritius or overseas-based tax avoidance structures.

Former additional solicitor general (ASG) Biswajit Bhattacharya was rebuked by Supreme Court justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde as their bench dismissed his PIL against Vodafone, reported the Mint . Bhattacharya had claimed “subversion of the rule of law” by not enforcing the retrospective amendment to ...

Former additional solicitor general and senior advocate Bishwajit Bhattacharyya has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court, seeking to get India to pay up its tax bill under a retrospective amendment passed in 2012 by the then-government, reported the Economic Times . Bhattach...

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) RC Lahoti is now arbitrator on the international arbitration between Vodafone and the Indian government under the India-Netherlands bilateral treaty, to decide validity of the Rs 27,000 crore tax demand from Vodafone, reported the PTI . The finance ministry’s deci...

SC Judge slams Gov for “scaring away all foreign investors” : “We are sorry to say that lawmakers are not keeping pace with the changing times, especially fast-changing technology. Then you will legislate with retrospective effect, scaring away all foreign investors,” said Justice KS Radhakrishnan t...

Vodafone Rs 1300 cr TP writ sent to DRP : The Bombay HC said that the Vodafone transfer pricing tax writ petition of the department’s transfer pricing adjustment of Rs 1,300 crore, should be referred to the tax department’s dispute resolution panel (DRP) [ Mint ] CCI checks Ericsson-Micromax royalti...

Time for a raise? HC judges request the CJI to increase their Rs 80,000 per month salary to an amount greater than what state chief secretaries get. They also want double the free electricity units at their residences, and to increase their retirement age from 62 to 65 [ TOI ] Sibal for conciliation...

The $2.4bn Vodafone tax-case decided in January, was sought to be reopened in the Supreme Court on Monday by Income Tax (IT) Department counsel solicitor general Rohinton Nariman. Nariman was arguing for the department in its challenge to a Gujarat High Court (HC) order which had cleared the demerge...

RTI confirms earlier Legally India figures that Rainmaker / BCI received Rs 4.8 crore / Rs 2.1 crore respectively through bar exam [ Bar & Bench / Legally India ] Luthra & Luthra partner Ameet Datta felicitated by artists for advising pro bono on the lobbying for copyright act amendment [ ...

A corollary of the Rule of Law is that legislation with retrospective effect is highly dubious, argues Kian Ganz. The latest budget proposals to tax offshore transactions going back to 1962, is a worrying sign of the kind of country India wants to be.

The Union Budget’s plan to tax Vodafone’s Indian Hutch takeover and similar transactions retrospectively going back to 1962 is unconstitutional and would not pass scrutiny of the courts, said Dutt Menon Dunmorrsett Mumbai-based partner Fereshte Sethna, who represented Vodafone in its Rs 11 crore ($2.4bn) dispute with the tax office in the Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court.

Welcome back to Legally India’s newsletter and apologies for the long delay. The good news is, however, that this issue is packed with more exciting news and analysis than ever before.

[The Vodafone tax case will not just be remembered for being one of the biggest in Indian history, but also for cementing the reputations of a raft of lawyers at the top of their game and others who are rapidly getting there.

Click here to read about how lawyers like Harish Salve, Rohinton Nariman, Dutt Menon Dunmorrsett (DMD) and others fought the case, exclusively in today’s Mint.](http://www.livemint.com/2012/02/02222413/How-India8217s-biggest-tax.html)