Preface:
Recently, to our dismay, Bollywood lost a promising star and a powerhouse of raw talent in the form of Sushant Singh Rajput, who committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence in Mumbai’s Bandra on 14th June, 2020.
“It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”
– Blackstone
The Indian Legal System revolves around the abovementioned legal maxim wherein an accused is not convicted unless the evidence against him is proved beyond reasonable doubt. An accused is given all sorts of rights and remedies to prove his innocence. One such provision is Section 313 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1974.
A Company, which is a different Legal Entity has various legal rights and liabilities like any other natural person. One such right is that a Company can sue and can be sued in its name i.e. a Company can file a case against some other person or some other Company and also a case can be filed by some other person against the Company. All such litigations / suits / petitions have to be in the name of the Company. However, the mandatory requirement is that such suits / petitions / Complaints have to be through the Authorized Representative of a Company.
The biggest advantage of doing business through a Company is the Transferable shares of a Company and the ease in which the shares can be transferred by the Company.
Firstly, let me point out that in cases which are instituted on a private complaint, and are not on the basis of a police report (i.e., a charge sheet filed by police), the prosecution is generally conducted by the complainant (who is generally the victim or his relative / representative) or his lawyer. This is relevant mostly for the cases before the Magistrate courts.
Under Section 167(2) of the Cr.P.C., a person who is in custody during investigation is entitled to be released on bail (generally called default bail) if the investigating officer fails to file charge sheet in the case within a period of 90 days (for an offence punishable with death, imprisonment for life or imprisonment for a term of not less than ten years) or 60 days (for other offences).
A Company has an Independent Legal Existence and is a different legal person in the eyes of law. Therefore, just like a normal person, a company can own properties / assets in its own name and the assets are not needed to be purchased in the name of a shareholder. It is therefore said that separate property can be owned by the Company and accordingly the Company does not require a shareholder to own a property.
All Constitution Amendment Bills are not required to be ratified by the state legislatures. Only those Constitutional Amendments, which relate to constitutional provisions mentioned in the Proviso to clause (2) of Article 368 of the Constitution of India, are required to be ratified by the legislatures of not less than one-half of the states. These provisions are mainly those which are related to federal character. The Proviso mentions the following provisions of the Constitution which require ratification by state legislatures:
Unlike a Partnership Firm and a Proprietorship concern, a Company is not dependent on its members. A company will not come to an end with the death of its members. A Partnership Firm usually dissolves with the death of one of its partners. So is the case with a Proprietorship firm which ceases to exist with the death of its sole proprietor. However, the Company can survive for ages and does not depend upon the financial stability, liabilities, survival and death of its members.
PREFACE:
More usual than not, whenever relationship between the daughter-in-law and the parents-in-law becomes acrimonious, the daughter-in-law seeks protection under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DVA) while the parents-in-law seek to protect themselves by knocking the door of the Maintenance Tribunal.
The Information Technology Act (IT Act) has provisions for giving legal recognition to various types of documents and transactions being in electronic form, instead of being in the traditional physical or paper form. Moreover, this Act has also given recognition to electronic signatures.
Right of private defence is provided under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This right is available to defend one’s own body or the body of another person, or the property of oneself or of another person. In certain situations, right to private defence can even extend to the causing of death of the assailant.
Usually, it is seen in practice that people lay a lot of emphasis on mutation of a property in the revenue records at the time of buying the property. If there is no mutation in the name of the seller, many a time, the buyer would think that the title of the seller is defective notwithstanding the fact that the property is registered in his name.
Provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, relating to arbitration are applicable when there is a arbitration agreement in writing between the parties, as referred to in Section 7 thereof. Of course, this section makes it clear that arbitration agreement is not required to be in any particular form. It can even be in the form of an exchange of letters, telex, telegrams or other means of telecommunication, such as email, which provide a record of the agreement, etc.
Section 25 of the Evidence Act lays down in no uncertain terms that a confession made to a police officer cannot be proved against a person accused of any offence. Thus, a confession made before a police officer is not admissible in courts against the accused person who made such confession.
At the time of floating of tenders by a company, those submitting their bids / tenders are generally required to deposit a certain amount of earnest money to be able to participate in the tendering process. This is done in order to ensure that only serious parties take part in the tendering process.
In India, use of handcuffs by police and jail staff is prohibited except when authorized by a court. This is as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
A company is different from a Proprietorship concern and a Partnership firm in many ways. It is having a distinct legal identity which is also known as Independent Corporate Existence. I have already explained the meaning of Independent Corporate Existence which can be read by clicking here.
Presuming that police in a state has already registered a case, investigation of such police case can be taken over by CBI mainly in one of the following three ways:
As a general rule, there is no mandatory requirement laid down in the Criminal Procedure Code that the complaint has to be given to police only by the victim or his relative. Any person having knowledge of the commission of a cognizable offence can give the complaint to police, whereupon police can register FIR.
