Company Law Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (CLI) was established by A. N. Aiyar in 1931 in Chennai (then called Madras). It was registered as a company under the Indian Companies Act, 1913 in the year 1943 and is a closely held private limited company located at 2, Vaithyaram Street, T. Nagar, Chennai 600 017, India.
In 1998 CLI promoted a company for exploiting new avenues for distribution of content called Taxlawsonline.com Pvt Ltd (TLO). Currently TLO is a wholly owned subsidiary of CLI and handles the e-publishing of content provided by CLI.
CLI also acquired Commercial Laws of India P Ltd, a company originally promoted by its founder, to expand its operations into the indirect taxation areas. This company has been merged with CLI.
Brief History
Prior to founding Company Law Institute of India, A.N. Aiyar was an associate editor of Indian Cases, India's premier law reports from 1926, and rose to become its Chief Editor.
In 1931 A.N. Aiyar launched a fortnightly report dedicated to Company Law, Banking and Insurance called Company Cases (CC) which gives CLI its name and soon became the most referred to journal of its class. CC is continually expanding its scope to cover new branches of law, such as, arbitration, debt recovery, foreign exchange law and intellectual property, so far as they impact companies and directors.
In 1933 A.N. Aiyar stepped down as editor of Indian Cases and launched the Income Tax Reports (ITR) to serve the cause of tax administrators, taxpayers, lawyers and chartered accountants in the field of direct tax law. A few years after that Indian Cases wound up — perhaps a testimony to A.N. Aiyar's contribution. In 1939 ITR was recognized by the Income Tax Department as its authorized journal and has ever since earned the reputation of being the most authentic, accurate, lucid and the most easily accessible source of law reports of High Court judgments and select Appellate Tribunal orders. In recent years, in response to the professional needs of subscribers, ITR has expanded its scope to substantially cover Appellate Tribunal orders and has a new journal dedicated entirely to Tribunal orders, ITR’s Tribunal Tax Reports [ITR (Trib)]. ITR and CC also carry reports of judgments of English courts including the House of Lords and the Privy Council by an arrangement for reprinting from The Weekly Law Reports with permission from The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales (ICLR).
A.N. Aiyar became a Senior Advocate of the then Federal Court of India in 1938. He started the Federal Law Journal which was later handed over to the Madras Law Journal when he was invited to take up the assignment of editor of the Federal Court Reports, the official law reports of the Federal Court of India. In 1950 with the founding of the Supreme Court of India, he continued as the editor of the Supreme Court Reports.
In 1950 A.N. Aiyar launched the Sales Tax Cases (STC) which, true to the tradition of his other journals became the leading journal on sales tax. With the abolition of Sales Tax and the introduction of Value Added Tax and Service Tax this journal was published as Vat and Service Tax Cases (VST) from the year 2005.
In 2002, CLI, identifying a need among corporate executives and the para-legal fraternity for a single source of encapsulated information in commercial law, launched a new journal Consolidated Commercial Digest (CCD), a fortnightly covering information relating to all aspects of commercial law encompassing important decisions, statutes, analytical articles, a forum for reader’s queries and quizzes, crosswords, etc., on all aspects of direct and indirect taxes, and corporate law, including sales tax, Central excise, customs, service tax, banking, consumer disputes, insurance, foreign exchange laws, intellectual property, labour law, and information technology law.
In 2010, in anticipation of the new goods and services tax proposed by the Central Government of India, CLI brought out a new journal Goods and Service Tax Cases (GSTR) dedicated to this new branch of law and to cover in the interregnum to cover judgments and laws relating to Excise and Customs Cases.
VST was merged into GSTR in the year 2018.
In the mid-nineties CLI anticipating the information technology revolution saw fit to digitize its entire library of publications and journals running now to nearly a million pages. CLI also developed its own software engine using its unique knowledge of user needs.
Editorial Expertise
One well-wisher wrote to us : “ITR headnotes are currency notes”. In fact many judges quote from ITR, CC and VST headnotes rather than the judgment. In spite of competition, ITR, CC and VST continue as the final authoritative reference for advocates and tax professionals, so much so that courts have shown a marked preference for ITR, CC and VST citations.
All members of our editorial department undergo rigorous training in reading, comprehension, cross-referencing and summarising for two years before being inducted into whole-time editorial work.
Commitment to Quality
A.N. Aiyar believed in placing quality above everything else. Eagle-eyed, he was meticulous even about minor “slips” and on one occasion scrapped an entire print run when the name of a case was misprinted as Style's instead of Styles'. He laid down methodical standards of summarising, paraphrasing, indexing (he introduced a conceptually new analytical form of indexing), footnoting, cross-referencing which is being followed to this day and has helped the company convert past publications into modern structured document standards with ease.
The measure of esteem in which ITR, CC and VST are held by the Department and an attestation of our editors’ expertise can be seen from the fact that Parliament has, on more than one occasion, effected amendments to the provisions of the Income Tax Act and Wealth Tax Act on the basis of comments published in ITR.
A High Court also once saw reason to recall its judgment and order a rehearing for a review, upon a discrepancy pointed out by our editors.
In 1976 A.N. Aiyar breathed his last but not before ensuring that his unflinching devotion to work and fervour for neat execution, accuracy and reliability which were attained by him by dint of hard work, became a part of the CLI work culture.
Journals
The company’s products which have earned its reputation are:
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Income Tax Reports (ITR), a weekly journal of reports of cases on direct taxes and related statutory Notifications and Acts.
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Company Cases (CC), a weekly journal dedicated to Corporate Law.
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Sales Tax Cases (STC), a weekly journal of reports of cases on sales tax (Discontinued from 2006).
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Vat and Service Tax Cases (VST), a weekly journal dedicated to Value Added Tax, Service Tax and Sales Tax (discontinued from 2017).
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ITR’s Tribunal Tax Reports (ITR-Trib), a weekly on the orders of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
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Goods and Service Tax Reports (GSTR), a weekly journal of reports of cases on Excise Duty, Customs and Service Tax Cases.
CLI also publishes a number of seasonal books authored by eminent on-the-field professionals and jurists covering subjects of topical and current interest.
Important Publications
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ITR Annual Digest, a digest of all cases reported in ITR in the year
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Indian Tax Laws, usually issued after each new Union Budget is announced
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Landmark Cases on Direct Tax Laws
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Dictionary of Tax Laws
E-Products
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TLOL Suite, a software product published on DVD media, containing all volumes of ITR, ITR-Trib, CC, STC, VST, GSTR and Tax Laws, Rules, Schedules, Circulars and Notifications in a searchable form.
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www.taxlawsonline.com, a web portal containing all data from journals published by CLI since inception.
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Taxlawsonline.com MOBILE, a mobile application containing all data published on our web portal.
Influential Role in Development of the Law
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Comp Cas (CC) and ITR have not only been a witness and critic of the development of company law and income-tax law over the last eight decades, but also influenced amendments to the law.
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Our editors’ commentaries on new legislations have been used as guidance by legislators and administrators.
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Our annual publication, A. N. Aiyar’s Indian Tax Laws, is the only publication of its kind to have traversed the development of the Indian Income-tax Act since its enactment in 1961.
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Sales Tax Cases (STC), launched in 1950, was the first national journal on the law of sales tax and is the only journal of its class to this day. It was later rechristened VAT & Service Tax Cases (VST) in keeping with the introduction of Value Added Tax law in place of Sales Tax law.
Commitment to Quality
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Our service-oriented long-term approach to law reporting reflects our principal stress on quality and customer-needs. We are committed to :
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Ensuring completeness, authenticity and accuracy of the content.
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Obtaining and reporting decisions of the lower fora before publishing those of the higher fora to ensure proper chronology.
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Adhering to neatness of presentation and time-tested methods of headnote preparation.
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In-house training of editorial staff which could take two to three, years of intensive, on-the-job training.
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Keeping the pricing structure affordable and attractive even to new entrants to the profession.
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No other journal carries notes on the disposals of special leave petitions (SLPs) in the Supreme Court, which inform readers of whether decisions of the High Courts have been taken on appeal or have attained finality.
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A unique feature of ITR is the commentary that tags each volume bringing out subject-wise the historical background of the cases and critiquing where the law has gone astray. This section has been so well received by readers that a publication based on the commentary (Landmark Cases) has been a bestseller since the first edition came out about 15 years ago.
Dominant Status
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We command a leadership status with respect to citation till today. Courts, tribunals, authors and professionals, invariably cite our journals above all other journals.
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Judges find it easier to quote from our headnotes and, at times, have in open court appreciated the clarity and brevity of the headnotes.
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Instances:
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Extract from [2001] 104 Comp Cas 569 (Supreme Court):
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“The headnote which brings out succinctly the ratio of the said decision is as follows (headnote of 89 Comp Cas) . . .”
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Extract from [2005] 127 Comp Cas 318 (Delhi) page 332:
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“Let us now examine as to what the decision in Monark Enterprises [1992] 74 Comp Cas decides. The facts of that case were as under (headnote): . . .”
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Again at page 333:
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“What was held is succinctly brought out in the headnote which provides a bird’s eye-view of the judgment and the purpose would be served in reproducing the same (headnote of [1992] 74 Comp Cas 89): . . .”
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Timeliness and Regularity
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Not a single part of our journals has missed a postal deadline since the first issue rolled out in 1931.
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ITR is the longest-running journal, apart from All India Reporter (AIR), having an all-India recognition.
Our Mission
Our mission is to be a leading global source of legal information and services using cutting edge technology.We are proud to offer an eStore for the legal profession that features innovative products and services. We also provide a wide range of solutions, insight and services important to legal professionals.
Site map
Our site is divided into the following major centers:
Searches
- Cases
- Acts
- Rules
- Schedules
- Notifications
- Circulars
Utils
- Income-tax Calculator
- Capital gains Calculator
- TDS Calculator
- Forms
Team
Our management team has significant legal experience, access to top law firms, law departments and providers, credibility within the legal community, and business to business e-commerce experience.
- Ramakrishnan T A
Founder and Managing Director - Ramakrishnan T N
Director, Finance
- Chandrashekar T N
Director, Content - Lakshmi R Sundaresan
Director, Content - Padmanabhan T R
Director, Marketing
Our development team has significant technical experience to deliver High-end, High-speed Database driven solutions using cutting edge technology.
