Your Q, His A: Rajiv K. Luthra

ACCORDING to Section 451 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, (Act) when any property is produced before any criminal court, it may make such order as it thinks fit for any proper custody of such property, pending the conclusion of the inquiry or trial.

Superdari is an expression for releasing property involved in a criminal case to a person. Since the property is deemed to be case property, the person having superdari rights may be required to produce it before the court on order.

Until the property remains case property, you have no absolute rights on your car and you cannot dispose it off without permission of the court.

Under Section 452 of the Act upon the conclusion of the inquiry or trial in the case, the court may make such order as it thinks fit for the disposal, by destruction, confiscation or delivery to any person claiming to be entitled to possession thereof.

For obtaining permission to sell the car under superdari you will have to file an appropriate application to the court, seeking permission to dispose off the car.

• Some foreigners with proper business proposals want to invest big sums of money in India and want details on my company profile and bank details etc. Should I provide details of my personal bank account and get the money transferred therein? What are the right ways of transferring money from abroad to my account or company account? They are not NRIs, nor am I.— P Bhat

If these foreigners want to invest money, you may make sure that the same is only used for investing in the shares of the Indian company.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issues the policy guidelines for foreign investment in India and these are modified from time to time. The Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer of Security by a Person Resident outside India) Regulation, 2000 issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), also governs such investments.

Foreign investment in India is allowed through two routes: the Automatic Route and by Government Approval. Automatic route is one, where no approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board/RBI is required for making the investment. While in certain sectors under the automatic route, foreign investments upto 100% is permitted, in others there is a prescribed percentage ceiling.

Government approval is necessary for – all proposals that require an Industrial License; which includes (i) item requiring an Industrial Licence under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951; (ii) foreign investment being more than 24% in the equity capital of units manufacturing items reserved for small scale industries; and (iii) all items which require an Industrial Licence in terms of the locational policy notified by Government under the New Industrial Policy of 1991; all proposals in which the foreign collaborator has a previous venture/tie-up in India in same or allied field (this, however, shall not apply to investment made in the IT sector); all proposals relating to acquisition of shares in an existing Indian company in favour of a foreign investor; and all proposals falling outside notified sectoral policy/caps or under sectors in which FDI is not permitted.

Since it is not known from your query, which sector you would be venturing into with your foreign collaborators, it is recommended that you take appropriate legal guidance before permitting any transfer of funds in your company account.