Report of the Five – Day Professional Certificate Course or Officers of HAL on Business Law: Negotiation, Drafting, Management and Interpretation of Contracts – International and National

This Five Day Course was specially designed for the officers working in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and was aimed to revisit the very basics of the work which is carried out by this esteemed PSU. Addressing the very vein of the country’s slowly increasing rank into the index of Ease of Doing Business, the course had the objective of revising the concepts of law and regulations as applied while carrying on business as usual. With the Contractual Obligations playing a major role in the same, this course was designed bring together a series of lectures and discussions on the multifaceted applications of the fundamentals of law and contracts for the purposes of procurement, management as well as dispute resolution.

The Defence PSUs in India, are specialised undertakings which have some of the most important and delicate situations to handle. The work calls for not only water-tight contracts, but also feasible designing of the law and procedure. Many a times, the breach of certain contracts leading to litigation and dispute resolution, causes a setback to the projects being undertaken, which are actually for the greater good of the country. Faulty clauses, concerns regarding liquidated damages, confidentiality agreements, garden-leave clauses are some of the very fundamental issues, knowledge and information about which is very important. This course, that’s how is designed to focus on all such fundamental concepts which shall enable the attending officials to revisit the technicalities and nuances of the law, which shall enable them to conduct their duties at their work more efficiently and be able to better tackle the legal and regulatory challenges which shall face them in the present and coming times. Dimension of contracts as a subject as well as a practical phenomenon is very diverse and requires much attention to understand by the people who enforce them. Similar is the concept of
Public Procurement, which has numerous nuances which must be taken care of such as impartiality, transparency, its infallibility supplemented by just fair and equitable method of calling for tenders. Tendering, there being no specific law to regulate, are best understood through judicial interpretations of principles and directions by the CVC and CAG With the new evolving times where even the contracts sometimes are of contemporary nature, the concept of E-Contracts and Digital Signature have become more than important. There are many issues which now crop up with PSUs and private players alike concerning legal issues involved in control of private key and asymmetric key encryption. In the five days, all such topics and deliberations were spread out, along with group-building and team exercises, which, it is hoped, shall enable the officials to actually apply the concepts taught and revised during the day and judge themselves on their understanding.