Page 23 - BANKING FINANCE NOVEMBER 2023

LEGAL UPDATE

lenging certain amendments to the the Rajya Sabha. The Opposition has imagesand the specific approach to
Prevention of Money Laundering Act argued that this was done only be- presenting stories would be exclusive
(PMLA). The bench will essentially ex- cause the government did not have the to each platform.
amine whether a law was validly numbers to get these legislations
categorised as a Money Bill or only to cleared in the Rajya Sabha. SEBI announces system to
circumvent scrutiny of the Rajya Sabha.
report demise of investor
Article 110 of the Constitution deals No copyright for ideas, but
The Securities and Exchange Board of
with Money Bills. A money bill is a bill copying expression is in- India (SEBI) recently announced a
that, in the opinion of the Speaker of
fringement, says HC centralised mechanism for reporting
the Lok Sabha, deals with taxation or and verification through the KYC Reg-
the appropriation of public funds - the The Delhi HC said that there is no copy- istration Agency in the case of the de-
Consolidated Fund of India or the Con- right protection for an idea itself, how-
mise of an investor.
tingency Fund of India. A money bill ever, if the "expression" of the idea is
can only be introduced in the Lok copied, it would indeed constitute The regulator has put in place opera-
Sabha, and the Speaker categorising a copyright infringement. tional norms, including the obligations
bill as a "money bill" means that it A single-judge Bench of Justice of regulated entities and registered
need not be passed by the Rajya Sabha. Prathiba M Singh was hearing the intermediaries that have interfaces
The union budget, for example, is a with investors or account holders who
copyright infringement dispute be-
money bill. tween two storytelling platforms - are natural persons. The new frame-
work will come into effect from Janu-
According to Article 110 (3) of the Con- Humans of Bombay (HOB) and People
ary 1, 2024, SEBI said in a circular.
stitution, "if any question arises of India (POI).
whether a Bill is a Money Bill or not, The lawsuit was initiated by HOB, The regulator said that listed compa-
the decision of the Speaker of the which alleged that POI had been in- nies wishing to provide beneficial ac-
House of the People thereon shall be fringing on its copyrighted content. It cess to such a centralized mechanism
final." This raises the question of the contended that the latter had not only to their investors holding securities in
extent of judicial review possible on the used identical content but had also physical form can establish connectiv-
Speaker's decision. However, the court replicated its business model, including ity with KRA through their RTAs.
in the 2018 Aadhaar case had said that the stories they published. After receiving intimation about the
the Speaker's decision will be subject demise of an investor, the concerned
POI argued that the plaintiff was not
to judicial scrutiny. intermediary will have to obtain the
a unique platform and pointed out that
Under Article 110(1), a Bill is deemed there were other similar platforms death certificate along with the PAN
to be a money Bill if it deals only with with similar business models. They also from the notifier or nominee and verify
matters specified in Article 110 (1) (a) claimed that HOB's concept had simi- the death certificate through online or
to (g) - taxation, borrowing by the larities with Humans of New York, offline mode.
government, and appropriation of which began in 2010. If the concerned intermediary, after
money from the Consolidated Fund of receiving information about the de-
Singh recorded the plaintiff's stance
India, among others. Article 110(1)(g) mise of the investor from the notifier
that they had no objection to POI op-
adds that "any matter incidental or nominee, is not in a position to ob-
erating a similar platform, as long as
to any of the matters specified in Ar- tain the death certificate, then it will
they refrained from copying its images.
ticles 110(1)(a)-(f)" can also be a have to inform the nominee that the
Money Bill. The court stated that there should be KYC status of the deceased investor has
no monopoly in the operation of a
Citing this additional clause, the Modi been flagged off as "On Hold" and re-
storytelling platform. The verdict clari-
government has introduced several key quire them to furnish the death certifi-
fied that the act of copying identical
legislation as a Money Bill, bypassing cate of the concerned investor.

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