Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management

PGDM (Finance) - Full-Time, Trimester-II

Course Title: Legal Aspects of Business (LAB) Instructors:
Course Code: 212004 Prof. Sushil Kr. Dixit
Trimester-III
Academic Session: 2017-18

Background
One of the most important and occurring part of a manager’s role is to take decisions. In this
changing context of liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy, law has been an
important consideration in decision-making process. This paper aims at familiarizing the
students about bringing out the inter-relationship among diverse business aspects, including
accounting, finance, marketing information systems economics and organization behavior.

Objectives:
In designing this course, the instructor has taken a view from the experience, that learning
process of legal aspects for management students is very much different as compared to law
students. Here, focus shall remain on:
● Developing an understanding of legal concepts that are an integral part of decision
making for managers
● Management application of Court judgments and legal knowledge rather than
focusing purely on legal provisions.

The course is broadly divided into four parts: Part I focuses on the Foundation of Business
Law which is the back bone for legal understanding. Part II covers the corporate laws
including Companies Act, Competition Act etc. Part III covers the emerging but very
important area of intellectual property rights. Part IV covers Banking Laws. Part V covers
some other important laws as self-study topics.

Course Contents:
Module/ Part Sessions Component
Part I 1-9 Foundation of Business Laws: Indian Legal System and
Common Legal terms.

Learning Legal Text: Title, Preamble, table of Contents,

Section, Rules, Enforcement and Violation of Law

Contracts: Offer, acceptance, consideration, types of contracts,

performance and discharge of contract, and remedy for breach
of contract etc.

Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business—Albuquerque, Ch 2-4
ii)Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch 1-5
iii) Indian Contract Act, 1872 (Bare Act)
iv) Mercantile law- Gulshan & Kapoor, Ch-1

Sale of Goods: Sale, Agreement to sale and sale, conditions

 and warranties, sale by description, sample and examination,
buyer beware and merchantability, transfer of property.

Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business—Albuquerque, Ch 5
ii) Legal Aspects of Business-Pathak, Ch 6-9
iii) Sale of goods act, 1930 (Bare Act)
iv) Mercantile law- Gulshan & Kapoor, Ch-4

Consumer Protection Act: Consumer, Goods, Services,

Defects in Goods, Deficiency in Service, Unfair Trade
Practices; Consumer Redressal Framework.

Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business—Albuquerque, Ch 15
ii)Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch-15-18
iii) Consumer Protection Act.1986 Bare Act
iv) Economic Laws by US Datey, Ch-9-11

Part II 10-12 CORPORATE LAWS

Company Law 2013: Types, Promotion and Formation of
Companies, Memorandum of Association, Articles of
Association, Registration, Incorporation and Distinct Legal
Identity, Objective of a Company, doctrine of Indoor
Management, Capital of a Company, winding-up of a
Company. Limited Liability Partnership Act,2008

Suggested readings:
i) Companies Act, 2013
ii) Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch-19-22
iii) Patent Act; Copyright Act Trade Mark Act (Bare Acts)

Competition Act: Purpose, Prohibition of anti-competitive

agreements, Prohibition of abuse of dominant position,
Combinations, Competition Commission of India

Suggested readings
i) Legal Aspects of Business—Albuquerque, Ch 12
i) Legal Aspects of Business-Pathak, Ch-23 (on Merger and
Acquisition cases)
ii) Business Law, Gulshan S.S.-Ch-11
iii) Competition Act2002 (Bare Act)

Securities Contract Regulation Act: Stock Exchanges

Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch-24

PART – III 13-17 INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Intellectual Property Right: Concept of Intellectual Property

Patents: Functioning of Patent Act, Right of Patentee, what
can be Patented, Compulsory Licensing.
 Copyright: What can be Copyrighted, Owner of Copyright,
Territorial Limitation, rights of Owner, Duration of Copyright
protection, Broadcasting Reproduction Rights, Registration of
Copyrights, Copyright Infringement
Trade Mark: Trade Marks, Requirement for registration of a
Mark, Non-user Clause. Registration in Foreign Marks, The
New Trade Mark Act, Foreign Trade Marks

Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business—Albuquerque, Ch 26
ii) Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch 25-29
iii) Patent Act; Copyright Act; Trade Mark Act (Bare Acts)
iv) Economic Laws by VS Datey, Ch-9

Part – IV 18-19 BANKING LAWS

Negotiable Instruments Act: Promissory Note, Bill of
exchange, Cheque, Parties to Negotiable Instruments,
Negotiation of Negotiable Instruments, Dishonor and
discharge, Relation between a Bank and a Customer.
Suggested readings:
i) Legal Aspects of Business- Pathak, Ch-3031
ii) Business Law, Gulshan, S.S. –Ch-9
iii) Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881
iv) Mercantile & Commercial laws, Rohini, Ch-24-27

PART - V 20 SELF-STUDY TOPICS

1. Law relating to Goods and Service Tax

2. Information technology and law (Suggested readings:
(i) Pathak, Legal Aspects of Business, chapter 40 (ii) Cyber
laws simplified, Vivek Sood (iii)Economic Laws by VS Datey,
ch-10).
3. Foreign Exchange Management Act (Suggested
readings Economic Laws by VS Datey, Ch-4, Business Law,
Gulshan, S.S.-Ch-12)
4. Law relating to Income Tax
5. The Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act,
1992
6. Special Contracts (Suggested readings: Pathak, Legal
Aspects of Business, Chapter 10-15)
7. Environment Protection Framework (Suggested
readings: Pathak, Legal Aspects of Business, Chapter 41)
8. Business & Fundamental Rights (Suggested readings:
Pathak, Legal Aspects of Business, Chapter-39)
9. Business and Criminal Liability (Suggested readings:
Pathak, Legal Aspects of Business, Chapter-42)
10. Indian Legal System (Suggested readings: Pathak,
 Legal Aspects of Business, Chapter -43)
11. Right to Information Act, 2005 (Bare Act)
12. Arbitration and Conciliation Act (Suggested readings:
Kapoor, N.D. Elements of Mercantile Law, Part II, Chapter 7)
13. Law of Insolvency

Suggested Readings (Latest Editions Only):

1. Albuquerque, Daniel (2013) Legal Aspects of Business,
Oxford
2. A. Rosenorans, S. Divan& M.L. Noble, environmental Law
and policy in India
3. Anantharaman, K. S., Lectures on Company Law and
MRTP
4. Bare Acts of the above laws
5. Datey, V.S.- Economic Laws
6. Datey, V.S- Business and Corporate Laws
7. Datey, V.s.- Indirect Tax Laws
8. Gulshan, Consumer Protection Act
9. Gulshan, S.S., Business Law
10. Kapoor, N.D., Elements of Mercantile Law
11. Kuchhal M.C. Mercantile Law
12. Pathak, Akhileshwar, Legal Aspects of Business, Tata
McGraw- Hill, 2nd Edition
13. Singh, Avtar, Principle of Mercantile Law
14. Singhania, V.K. Income Tax
15. Sood, Vivek, cyber law simplified
16. Student’s Guide to Economic Laws. Taxmann Publication
17. Student’s Guide to Mercantile and Commercial Laws,
Taxmann Publication
18. Tulsian, P.C., Mercantile Laws
19. V. N. Shukla’s Constitution of India

For updating recent legal development and the emerging tend in the area of business law and
management, participants are advised to consult the latest issues of legal journals, magazines,
and the newspapers.

Pedagogy:
The course will focus to develop the concept and skills. The following paragraphs describe
the pedagogy for each.
(a) Concept Development
Business law has its foundation in contract. It is no surprise that a teaching of business law
begins with contract law. A good part of the business world is based on buying and selling.
Thus, law on sale of goods invariable follows contract law, as a specialized from of contract.
Law dealing with unfair trade practices and consumer protection further build on contract and
sale. These themes are foundations of business law as these apply to all business. Thus, the
course would begin with contract law and move on to sale of goods, unfair trade practices
and consumer protection.
After the business laws, you will have the capacity to take up a set of legal text and detail it
out on your own. Thus, hereafter, working with micro-level details would not be an efficient
use of time. In addition, you start finding it to be repetitive. Instead, the course should expose
the student to the organization principles of different sectors, fields and branches. This could
be done in the next few sessions, over a wide range of topics. The instructors can choose
them to depend on the relevance and interest. The themes include intellectual property rights,
including trademarks, patents and copyrights, Securities regulation, Banking Law and
negotiable instruments, law and electronics medium, Law and environment Taxation
including income tax, sales tax, excise tax and service tax, Law and criminal labiality,
Fundamental Rights and Business
(b) Skill development
A manager comes across legal texts like acts, rules, notifications, government orders, notices,
contracts, court orders, judgment all the time in the course of his/her work. He must have the
skill to read and understand legal texts, law informs all business practices and a manager has
to be law literate. Thus, a core objective of the course is to bring out to you the organization
of the hierarchy of legal texts, including acts, rules, notification and government order. You
should acquire the skill to read these texts. In addition, you should understand that court
judgments expand the meaning of legal texts. You should have the sill to read court
judgments and give meaning to it in conjunction with legal texts. We would do this in the
course of our journey from contract law to unfair trade practices.
Instead of beginning with the law per se, as mentioned earlier the objective is to develop skill
to read and understand legal texts. This would be a lifelong skill to follow all changes in the
future in a law and understand legal provisions.

Evaluation Criteria
Internal Assessment 60 Marks
Quiz 1 : 05 marks
Mid Term : 20 marks
Class Participation : 05 marks
Case Analysis/Viva : 10 marks
Assignment : 10 marks
Presentation : 10 Marks

Term-End Examination 40 Marks

Group Presentation & Assignment

The course emphasizes on the students learning of the conceptual foundation of law and the
skills of reading and understanding legal texts. The presentation component at the end of the
course is to encourage exploration on a theme and deploy the skills and concepts learnt in the
course. You shall from groups of 4-5 for presentation. Experience shows that the students
choose the following three kinds of topics. First, a business law issue/dispute being keenly
discussed in the media and public spaced. Second, review of an Act not covered in the class.
Third, analyzing an issue by applying different legal provisions and court judgments. The
groups shall, in consultation with the instructor, flash out the tentative interest in a workable
proposal. A good proposal would have adequate exploration, engagement and study.
Thereafter, the group does its research and makes the presentation to the class. Each
presentation shall be for about 12 to 15 minutes.
Group assignments would be in area of topics covered but would focus on analysis of the
Acts in the context of latest developments.