Navigating Solutions and Darkness

The term  key managerial personnel  is used to define the executive management - they are the point of first contact between the company and its stakeholders.  Chapter XIII, Companies Act, 2013  read with  Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014  deal with the legal and procedural aspects of appointment of Key Managerial Personnel. S. 2(51): 1. Chief Executive Officer/ Managing Director/ Manager 2. Company Secretary 3. Whole time director 4. Chief Financial Officer 5. Any other officer as may be prescribed. Managing Director S. 2(54):  entrusted with substantial powers of management of the affairs of the company. (Excluding administrative acts of a routine nature when so authorised by the Board such as the power to affix the common seal of hte company to any document or to draw and endorse any cheque on account of the company in any bank or to draw and endorse any negotiable instrument or to sign any cer...

1 Ab initio From the beginning 2 Ad hoc Not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes 3 Ad idem To the same thing 4 Ad infinitum To infinity 5 Ad valorem According to value 6 Alter ego A second identity living within a person 7 Amicus curiae Friend of the court 8 Audi alteram partem Hear the other side 9 Bona fide In good faith 10 De facto In fact 11 De jure In law 12 De novo A new 13 Dehors Outside of 14 Ex gratia As a matter of grace or favor 15 Ex officio By virtue of an office 16 Ex parte Expression used to signify something done or said by a person not in presence of his opponent 17 Fait accompli An accomplished fact 18 actus reus Guilty act 19 In personam Against the person 20 In rem Act done or directed with reference to no specific person or with reference to all whom it might concern 21 Inter alia Among other things 22...

Sources of English law 1. Common law 2. Law merchant 3. Principle of equity 4. Statute law Common law - Name given to those principles of law evolved by judges in making decisions on cases that are brought before them. - Built up over many years to form a complete statement of the law in particular areas. - The body of legal rules, the primary sources of which were the general immemorial customs, judicial decisions and textbooks on jurisprudence. Law Merchant - Most important source of Mercantile law - Those customs and usages binding on traders in their dealings with each other. - Should be ancient, general and notorious and commands universal compliance. - If not, has to be proved by the party claiming it. Principle of Equity - Body of rules, the primary source of which was neither custom nor written law, but the imperative dictates of conscience which has been set forth and developed in the Court of Chancery. - Procedure of Common Law courts was technical and d...

Stare Decisis - Adhere to the decision and don’t unsettle established things. - Intention to bring certainty and uniformity Ratio Decidendi - Underlying principle of a judicial decision - Proposition of law necessary for the decision, or which can be extracted from the decision - Decision based on material facts of the case – where issue to be answered on principles, extracting the material facts and disregarding the immaterial elements. -  Ratio decidendi or general principle has the binding effect as a precedent, not obiter dictum.  Determination or separation of ratio from obiter isn’t so easy. Obiter Dicta - Said by the way - Judicial utterances in the course of delivering a judgment, which taken by themselves weren’t necessary for that particular decision.  PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF LAW Customary Law:  Even though this is the most ancient form of law, its importance is diminishing with the growth of legislation and precedent. How customs are made:...

Law may be from the sovereign, from popular consensus, from god, from a number of heterogeneous factors. These sources can be divided into: Principle sources Customary law -  Even though this is the most ancient form of law, its importance is diminishing with the growth of legislation and precedent. With sanction  - Enforced by the state Legal - operate as binding rule of law, recognized and enforced by the courts. Local - prevails in definite locality or community, source of law for that place only. General - prevails throughout the country. E.g.: common law of England Conventional - “usages” – binding due to an agreement between parties and not due to any legal authority independently possessed by them. Conditions:  It must be shown that convention is clearly established and fully known to the contracting parties. No fixed period for which it should have been observed before recognized as binding. Must be reasonable and can't alter the law of the land....

It is impractical to try and give a clear and concrete forever definition of law. Multiple definitions are formed according to changing thought and need of the hour. Classification of definitions: 1.  Natural  Most of the ancient definitions fall under this category - Ulpine, Cicero, Justinian's Digest etc.  Ancient Hindu law considered law to be the command of God. Prominent jurist  Salmond  defined law as  “the body of principles recognized and applied by the State in the administration of justice.”  That is to say, rules recognized and acted on by courts of justice. To understand the law, one should know its purpose. And in order to ascertain the true nature of the law, one should go to the courts, not the legislature. (I.e. go to the people who interpret the laws, not the ones that write them.) 2.  Positivistic  "Law is the aggregate of rules set by man is politically superior or sovereign to men as politically subject....

Photo by  Wesley Tingey  on  Unsplash Act and Omission To constitute a tort, there must be a wrongful act - where the word "Act" encompasses both  action and omission.  And an omission becomes wrongful only where there was "a duty to act." For instance - and this is apparently a very popular legal example: If a man sees a child drowning, and he is capable of saving the child without any risk of harm or "appreciable exertion" to himself, but he does nothing - that is perfectly within that man's right.  Yes, you read that right - it's perfectly OK to stand by and watch as harm comes to someone else - you have no duty to act in such a case.  Stovin versus Wise, (1996) 3 All ER 801 (HL), p. 82:  "A duty to prevent harm to others or to render assistance to a person in danger or distress" is a duty that can apply to a very large class of people (who cannot be determined/defined). Therefore, "why should one be held l...

Photo by  Bruno van der Kraan  on  Unsplash Since I left law school, I've realized that most people view the law as beyond their understanding. Intimidating, even. This is mere perception. Most legal matters can be translated into forms that make them easy to understand. So I want to share the first article I ever read in law school - The Case of the Speluncean Explorers  by Lon L. Fuller. The wiki summary of this (28 page) article can be found here.   The article was inspired by the infamous case of R vs Dudley and Stephens . Dudley and Stephens were shipwrecked along with two other men. When one of the other men - a cabin boy named Richard Parker - fell into a coma, he was killed and eaten by Dudley and Stephens. They were tried for murder after being rescued, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Considering that Dudley and Stephens would have died if they hadn't done what they did, public opinion called for mercy. In the end, they got a sentence o...