The Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015 (Act) received the assent of the President of India on 31 December 2015 and is deemed to have come into force on 01 April 2014. Some salient features of the Act are: The definition of “employee” has been amended to mean any person (other than an apprentice) employed on a salary/ wage not exceeding INR 21,000 (Rupees twenty one thousand) per month in any industry to do any skilled or unskilled manual, supervisory, managerial, administrative, technical or clerical work for hire or reward, whether the terms of employment be express or implied.

The year of 2015 can be recognised as the year for commencement of legal reforms in India. Some of the key legal developments during the year 2015 are as follows: As a measure to improve the ease of doing business in India, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) issued: The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015 was enacted which removed the requirement of a minimum paid up share capital amount for private and public companies and requirement of special resolution for related party transaction and introduced provision stipulating punishment for contravention for acceptance of deposit from public.

India has recently enacted a new legislation viz. The Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts Act, 2015 (“Act”) which is deemed to have come into force from 23 October 2015. Some salient features of the Act are: · “Commercial dispute” has been defined to include, inter-alia, any dispute related to transactions between merchants, bankers, financiers and traders such as those relating to mercantile documents including enforcement and interpretation of such documents, construction and infrastructure contracts, including tenders,