ACADEMIC REPOSITORY
Research Papers & Publications
Access peer-reviewed legal scholarship available for academic reference and digital download. Browse our comprehensive collection of published works across commercial and constitutional law.
Explore our extensive collection of peer-reviewed scholarship. Readers are invited to browse and download finalized papers for academic reference.
VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 (2026)
Reimagining Insider Trading in India: Enforcement Gaps, Retail Losses and Need for Preventive Surveillance Mechanism
Mr. Snehasish Sarkar
Ms. Aditi Mishra
Educational Affiliation : Quantum University, Roorkee
Abstract :
The insider trading, a sub-sector of securities fraud, is an enormous and structural problem to the honesty, transparency, and equity of financial markets worldwide. The issue of dealing with the intricate insider trading details is quite critical in Indian context where the number of retail investors has experienced an unprecedented and explosive growth in the last decade, to maintain the economic growth and investor trust. This is a critical research paper aimed at analyzing the evolving nature of insider trading in India with the help of a multidisciplinary approach- legal provisions, criminological perspective, economic effects on the retail market participants and the pressing necessity of the advanced technological surveillance system. Even with a hard statutory regime with the assistance of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations 2015 and the blanket amendments of 2024 and 2025, there remain serious loopholes in enforcement. The fact that circumstantial evidence is heavily applied and the judicial interpretations are in some ways strict adds to these regulatory loopholes, which have enhanced the evidentiary burdens on the regulator accidentally.
In the meantime, the spread of digital footprints, algorithmic high-frequency trading, and the rise of financial influencers—who are essentially social media influencers—has significantly intensified information asymmetry. This imbalance inflicts severe financial damage on retail participants. This research advocates for a fundamental shift in approach from the current responsive, post-facto prosecution to a proactive, preventive surveillance strategy aimed at bridging the widening gap between substantive law and its enforcement. By conducting a comprehensive comparative analysis of regulations in the United States and the European Union, the paper emphasizes the urgent necessity to adopt the latest RegTech solutions in India and to foster extensive collaboration with the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND)
VOL. 1, ISSUE I (2026)
Reconciling Environmental-Law Principles with the Regulation of Generative Artificial Intelligence: Legal Gaps, Comparative Perspectives, and Policy Proposals with a Special Focus on India
Ms. Kallam Lakshmi,
Educational Affiliation : Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam, Tirupati
Ms. Manikanta Mahima Chowdary G,
Educational Affiliation : VIT - AP School of Law
Abstract :
The rapid expansion of generative artificial intelligence (AI), powered by large-scale data centres, industrial GPU clusters, rare-earth-dependent semiconductor manufacturing, and high-capacity electricity networks, has created an environmental footprint that existing Indian environmental laws do not adequately recognise. Although legal and policy debates on AI have centred on data privacy, liability, ethics, safety, and intellectual property, the ecological implications of AI infrastructure, including energy consumption, carbon emissions, water use, and electronic waste, remain largely outside the scope of regulatory scrutiny. This paper argues that these impacts constitute an under-regulated externality that must be addressed through established constitutional and environmental-law doctrines. It further clarifies that many of these harms arise not from AI algorithms themselves but from the broader physical infrastructure, namely data centres, cloud platforms, and hardware supply chains, through which AI systems operate.
Analysing Article 21, Articles 48-A and 51A(g), and leading environmental jurisprudence, the paper demonstrates that Indian constitutional principles already mandate environmental protection and support extending environmental-law oversight to AI systems. The study identifies legal gaps relating to definitional exclusions, lack of carbon-disclosure mandates, absence of EIA norms for data centres, and inadequate lifecycle regulation of AI hardware. Comparative analysis of the EU, US, China, and international soft-law frameworks shows a global shift towards sustainable digital infrastructures, providing useful models for India. The paper concludes with concrete policy proposals specifying thresholds, institutional responsibilities, implementation timelines, and enforcement mechanisms suited to India's constitutional and administrative structure.
VOL. 1, ISSUE I (2026)
Controlled Compliance: Rethinking Corporate Governance in Promoter-Dominated Firms in India
Ms. Shraddha Jain
Educational Affiliation : Chanakya National Law University
Abstract :
This article examines the structural role of promoter concentration in shaping corporate governance outcomes in India. Moving beyond traditional governance models premised on dispersed ownership, the study argues that promoter dominance constitutes a foundational feature of Indian corporate structures rather than a deviation from them. Through a theoretical and institutional analysis, the article highlights the limitations of conventional frameworks such as agency theory in capturing the dynamics of concentrated ownership, while integrating alternative perspectives, including entrenchment, stewardship, and non-linear models. It further evaluates the effectiveness of the regulatory framework under the Companies Act, 2013, and the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015, demonstrating that governance mechanisms often operate within, rather than against, structures of control. The article develops the concept of controlled compliance to explain how governance institutions in promoter-dominated firms retain formal legitimacy while becoming structurally embedded within concentrated ownership arrangements. Unlike entrenchment-based accounts, which emphasise opportunistic extraction, controlled compliance is concerned with the institutional absorption of oversight mechanisms within control structures as a systemic governance feature rather than an exceptional failure. This reframing shifts the analytical emphasis from ownership concentration to the operational autonomy of governance institutions under conditions of concentrated control.
VOL. 1, ISSUE I (2026)
A FASTER ROUTE TO THE SAME GATE: VIDARBHA, SECTION 7(5)(A), AND THE PARADOX OF CIIRP.
Ms. Hiya Darpan Sonchatra
Educational Affiliation : NALSAR University of Law
Abstract :
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act 2026 responds to the discretion created by Vidarbha Industries Power Ltd. V. Axis Bank Ltd. By changing Section 7(5)(a). This change brings back the two-step test for admitting cases that was in Innoventive Industries. At the time the law adds Chapter IV-A. This part allows a group of financial creditors who own 51% of the debt to start insolvency procedures without needing approval from the National Company Law Tribunal. This paper says the two changes are not working together but are in conflict. If the fourteen-day rule for admitting cases under Section 7(5)(a) is real then the need for an out-of-court option goes away. If it is not real then Chapter IV-A just moves the court review to a more complicated stage. This stage includes challenges converting cases, moratoriums and avoiding actions under Sections 58C–58K. Using the case of Surendra Trading Co. the paper says the fourteen-day rule is not strict so the law solves the reason for courts to have power but does not fix the real problems. These problems include many cases, not enough judges and not enough people to handle the work. Looking at the UK system US rules and the UNCITRAL principles well as issues from Swiss Ribbons and Embassy Property Developments the paper says that the speed of Chapter IV-A comes at a cost. This cost is certainty and possible unfair treatment of different groups of creditors. The paper ends by saying that real changes need support at the start of the process not new ways, around it.
VOL. 1, ISSUE I (2026)
From judicial improvisation to statutory architecture: cross-border and enterprise-group insolvency under the IBC at ten
Ms. Nishtha Sharma
Educational Affiliation : NALSAR University of Law
Abstract :
As India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 approaches its tenth anniversary, this article examines how a decade of judicial improvisation around two structural silences — cross-border insolvency and group insolvency — has now culminated in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026. In the absence of statutory guidance, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) approved an ad hoc cross-border cooperation protocol in the Jet Airways insolvency, while the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the "substantive consolidation" of thirteen Videocon group entities without any codified basis. The Videocon saga, spanning seven years and multiple reversals, culminated in a May 2026 NCLAT order that reinstated entity separateness and Committee of Creditors (CoC) autonomy, exposing the doctrinal instability that results when tribunals invoke UNCITRAL-style concepts without UNCITRAL's disciplining framework. The 2026 Amendment Act responds by inserting a new Chapter VA on group insolvency and a new Section 240C empowering the Central Government to frame UNCITRAL-aligned cross-border insolvency rules. Drawing on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency (1997) and the Model Law on Enterprise Group Insolvency (2019), this article argues that the delegated rules under these provisions must embed a coordination-first, consolidation-as-exception logic — rather than codifying the broader, discretion-heavy approach the NCLT took in Videocon — if India is to avoid re-litigating, in statutory form, the very instability that a decade of case law exposed. The article closes with four concrete recommendations addressing COMI-based recognition, enumerated consolidation pre-conditions, a statutory group representative, and reconciliation between tribunal consolidation powers and CoC commercial wisdom.
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