Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic together

Remote Work

With the more stringent isolation measures that have been put in place to try and curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), all our offices have instituted a “Work from Home” policy, in order to protect the interests of our clients as well as our staff. Our IT team has worked hard to ensure that all facilities are made available to the lawyers and a seamless transition of work can take place. Any meetings and conference calls with clients will continue as before using virtual means.

We employ best-in-class, highly secure IT infrastructure. Our platform and internal software allow secure remote access to all documents for all employees. Further, all files stored in user systems are encrypted when “Data at Rest” and “Data at Transit” as well.

All official documents are filed electronically. Our docketing and e-filing teams can file any urgent documentation/application through remote access if required.

Court Appearances

We are constantly in touch with legal and judicial authorities in order to best serve our clients’ interests. Increasing number of courts and fora (including tribunals, Patent Offices, the Supreme Court of India) are accepting hearings through Video Conferencing (VC) or adjourning hearings and giving condonation of delays. Our legal team is regularly tracking such developments and is fully prepared to make submissions in whatever format is required by our clients.

Conferences and Seminars

We have temporarily put our in-person conferences and seminars on hold while we await guidelines from medical authorities on when it is safe to conduct public events again. Till then, we are continuing to organise webinars and conference calls, both individually and as knowledge partners to the Institute of Business Laws. You can find out more about upcoming events by emailing our events team at events@lakshmisri.com

Coronavirus Insights

Businesses throughout the world have been impacted by COVID-19 and are forced to undertake drastic measures. Amongst other issues, companies are facing a lot of contractual and tax related issues in relation to their B2B and B2C transactions. Additionally, the pandemic is also impacting the day to day governance of companies and is resulting in various regulatory challenges for them. See the latest statutory and regulatory changes in India in light of the Covid-19 outbreak here.

Our corporate team organised a conference call on March 26 to discuss "Impact of COVID-19 on commercial arrangements in the travel and hospitality industries". Reach out to us for a summary of this event by emailing at events@lakshmisri.com

COVID-19 Statutory and Regulatory Updates for Companies

On March 24, 2020, the Finance Minister announced several relief measures across sectors, relating to Statutory and Regulatory compliance matters, in view of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. The main relief measures have been compiled by our experts, along with their implications for businesses.
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Revisiting Contractual Theory and Obligations in the Times of COVID19

Amongst other objectives, contracts are about the allocation of risks between contracting parties. Risks that may hinder or absolutely obviate the possibility performance are therefore addressed, either by parties themselves in the contract, or by the legal rule of frustration of contracts. In this note, we present an overview of how the law deals with the contractual impact of risks occurring from viruses such as the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).
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COVID-19: IPR Statutory Updates

In view of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, various Constitutional Courts as well as statutory bodies related to Intellectual Property Laws in India have announced several relief measures for the stakeholders. The said measures have been detailed herein below, along with their implications.
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COVID-19: Customs – Impact of the lockdown

Due to Novel COVID-19, partial / complete lockdown has been imposed in various countries across the world. The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India on March 23, 2020 announced a complete lockdown throughout the country for 21 days, as a preventive measure to slow down the spreading of the virus. The Central Government, Supreme Court and other courts / tribunals have issued guidelines regarding the procedure to be followed in respect of proceedings before courts / tribunals and lower authorities during this period.
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CORPORATE - Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020

Upon representations by various stakeholders and in the interest of all companies, the Ministry of Corporate Aairs (“MCA”) recently came out with the Companies Fresh Start Scheme, 2020. The purpose of the said scheme is to condone the delay in filing of documents and provide a one-time waiver to companies from prosecution and imposition of additional fee, in order to enable such companies to file all their documents.
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CORPORATE - LLP Settlement Scheme

Upon representations by various stakeholders and in the interest of all limited liability partnerships (“LLPs”), the Ministry of Corporate Aairs (“MCA”) recently came out with the LLP Settlement Scheme 2020. The purpose of the scheme is to condone the delay in filing of documents and provide a one-time waiver to LLPs from prosecution and imposition of additional fee, in order to enable LLPs to file all their documents.
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COVID-19 – Analysis of Price Fixation Orders under Essential Commodities Act

As the country went into the lockdown, the authorities had a task of keeping supply chains of commodities like masks and sanitizers, active and running - the products essential in the country’s fight against the pandemic COVID-19. Further, the new-found demand for sanitizers and masks also initially led to an increase in their prices. Whereas, the availability of masks and sanitizers of right quality and right prices is essential in combating pandemic COVID-19.
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Coronavirus: Employer and employee relationship

Coronavirus, which originated from the Wuhan district of China, has been declared as a health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on January 30, 2020. The outbreak of the novel Coronavirus Disease (“COVID-19”) has transcended geographical barriers and already sickened approximately 15,00,00 people, with more than 85,000 deaths across the globe .
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CORPORATE: COVID 19 & Sporting Events: Impact Analysis

The global sports market is an estimated $600 billion industry1, comprising of infrastructure, events, training, manufacturing and retail. The scale and revenue-generating opportunities are most visible during marquee international sporting events. Sponsors, organisers, players, broadcasters, advertisers, hospitality providers etc. are all part of this lucrative sports events industry, with huge sums of money invested in the market.
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Competition Law in the time of COVID-19

Businesses across the world have been impacted by the global pandemic, COVID – 19 and State measures have brought many economies to a standstill. It is inevitable that the next few months are going to present new challenges to businesses.While certain industries such as airlines, entertainment, hotels etc.
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Regulatory aspects of Blood plasma therapy in COVID-19 scenario – Should we have woken up earlier?

Indian Council of Medical Research (hereinafter referred as the ‘ICMR’) has recently come up with letter of intent inviting hospitals and institutions to participate in randomized controlled study of Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in critically infected COVID-19 patients.
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FDI Policy revised to curb opportunistic takeovers

The extant COVID-19 pandemic has been plaguing individuals and industries alike. The Government of India has, with a view to curb opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reviewed and revised the extant foreign direct investment (“FDI”) policy dated August 28, 2017 (“FDI Policy”), issued by the Department for Promotions of Industry and Internal Trade (“DPIIT”) vide press note 3 of 2020 dated April 17, 2020 (“Press Note 3”).
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Performance Securities - Legal Principles and early decisions on enforcement during COVID-19

Bank guarantees, letters of credit, pledges and other similar instruments cement commercial dealings by securing payment against default of a contract. A key aspect of such security instruments is also that they are usually exercisable at the unilateral option of the holder, in order to ensure timely cashflow, despite a pending dispute as to whether the default has occurred.
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Aarogya Setu and Privacy Concerns

Aarogya Setu is a mobile application launched by the Government of India on April 2, 2020. As per the terms of service of the Aarogya Setu Application (“ASA”), the intention is to provide a service to notify, trace, and suitably support a registered user regarding the COVID-19 infection.
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Browse the latest technical and medical guidelines on fighting the novel Coronavirus.