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Waqf Amendment, HUL Versus Honasa, Copyright Laws, And more…

Your weekly rundown of significant judicial rulings and legal battles influencing policy, companies, regulation, and governance.

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By BasisPoint Insight

April 19, 2025 at 9:20 AM IST

“When we sit on the bench to adjudicate, we lose our religion. Both sides are equal for us!”
- Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna said while heading the bench hearing a case relating to challenge to the newly passed Waqf Amendment Act

Cut, Paste, Repercussions: The Arbitration Slip That Could Snip India’s Global Ambitions
India and arbitration are back in the headlines — but not quite in the way we’d hoped. In a development that's left the legal fraternity dumbfounded, the Supreme Court of Singapore recently upheld the annulment of an arbitration award after finding that nearly half of it was copied and pasted from prior awards in related cases.

What’s more eyebrow-raising? All three tribunals passing those near-identical awards were chaired by the same individual — former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra.

While the cases did share some common parties and claims, Singapore’s apex court — which also functions as a court of appeals — found enough divergence in the facts to rule that copy-paste jurisprudence simply wouldn’t cut it. The court cited the need to “safeguard the integrity and fairness of the arbitral process” in upholding the annulment.

After all, arbitration isn’t supposed to feel like déjà vu with Ctrl+C.

Beyond legal formalities, the ruling casts a shadow on the credibility of Indian arbitrators, particularly retired judges — a pool India has heavily relied upon in its bid to emerge as an international arbitration hub. This could dent not just reputations, but also India’s broader ambition to become a preferred venue for global commercial dispute resolution.

In the world of cross-border investments, perception matters. And nothing scares away foreign investors faster than a dispute resolution process that seems... recycled.

For India’s arbitration dreams to flourish, trust can’t be templated. Precision, originality, and procedural rigor must take centre stage. Anything less, and we risk being red-flagged — not just by courts, but by capital.

The Week That Was

Key Rulings 

  • The Supreme Court upheld using Urdu on nameboards of a municipal council in Maharashtra, highlighting that Urdu, much like Marathi, is a language born in India and is not alien or foreign to the nation.
  • The Supreme Court set out a “two-pronged approach” to distinguish between protected copyright work and industrial designs. The court said that the test would entail analysing whether an article qualifies for protection under copyright law or designs act; and to assess whether the article has a functional purpose to serve or aesthetic. 
  • The Phonographic Performance Ltd cannot grant or issue licences for public performance of sound recording in its repertoire since it is not a registered copyright society under the Indian copyright law nor is it a member of such a society, the Delhi High Court held. 

Courts

  • The central govt has assured the top court that it will not act upon some of the key controversial aspects of the newly-passed Waqf Amendment Act such as process to denotify already registered or declared waqf properties or appointment of non-Muslim persons on the Waqf council and boards. The court had earlier indicated that these provisions needed to be stayed but the government sought time to file its reply on the case and gave an undertaking about not acting upon the provisions.
  • The Delhi High Court ordered Hindustan Unilever Ltd., the owner of the Lakmé brand, to alter its sunscreen advertisement, which was accused of disparaging Honasa Consumer Ltd.'s Derma Co. product. As part of the directive, the company must remove online advertisements within 24 hours and take down physical hoardings within 48 hours
  • The Supreme Court set aside the Delhi High Court’s recent directives to remove allegedly defamatory edits from Asian News International’s Wikipedia page.
  • IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore has sued cab-hailing service company Uber in the Delhi High Court over its ad featuring Travis Head, an RCB player, in it. The franchise team has sought a restraining order against the ads it has reservations against.
  • The Bombay High Court granted interim relief to comedian Kunal Kamra giving him protection from arrest for the time being in relation to a case lodged against him over his stand-up comedy satirical video. 
  • Supreme Court pulls up Telangana govt over felling of trees in ecologically sensitive Kancha Gachibowli area near Hyderabad Central University in violation of environmental norms. The court, while halting the tree felling, has asked the authorities to present a plan for restoration of the region.
  • The Bombay High Court on Tuesday took on record the consent terms agreed on by the Lodha brothers, Abhishek and Abhinandan, in a trademark dispute of about ₹50 billion.

Quasi Courts

  • The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in Chennai rejected appeals filed by Riju Raveendran and the Board of Control for Cricket in India against a ruling by the NCLT in Bengaluru. That earlier order by NCLT had directed BCCI to present its settlement offer to the Committee of Creditors of Byju’s parent company.
  • The NCLAT allowed a petition by Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc for redaction of certain confidential material from a recent judgment passed by the forum. The order was passed in chamber which is not open for public.
  • Capital markets regulator SEBI has barred Gensol Engineering Ltd and its promoters Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi from accessing the market. The SEBI order comes at the back of allegations of misconduct like forgery, fund diversion and misleading disclosures.

Others

  • CJI Sanjiv Khanna has written to the Law Ministry recommending Justice BR Gavai as the next top judge. Justice Gavai is currently the second senior-most judge at the Supreme Court.
  • Former Supreme Court judge Justice Kurian Joseph has been appointed to lead the high-level committee formed by the Tamil Nadu government to examine issues related to State autonomy.

The Big Listings
April 21: The Bombay High Court will resume its hearing on the case filed by Skoda Volkswagen’s India unit against the show-cause notices issued to it by customs authority
April 24: Karnataka High Court is set to hear X’s lawsuit against the Indian government over “unrestrained censorship” of content on its platform
April 30: NCLT Bengaluru bench will hear the case about Aakash Educational Services Ltd’s shareholding amid Byju’s insolvency case
May 5: Supreme Court to hear a batch of cases relating to the GST notices sent to online gaming apps
May 5: Supreme Court to hear a batch of petitions challenging the newly passed Waqf Amendment Act

* The dates of hearing can change and a concrete list is prepared just a day before

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