S.S. Rana & Co. has been listed among the Top Firms for India in the Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards, Autumn 2024. Two of the firm’s articles placed first for India: one in Data Protection and one in Immigration. It is the firm’s second Top Firm listing of 2024, after Spring 2024.
About the Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards
Mondaq is an online publisher of legal, regulatory and financial commentary written by law firms and advisers around the world, and its awards site is co-branded with The Legal 500. Its Thought Leadership Awards recognise the authors whose articles readers turn to most.
Who qualifies: The awards draw on articles published on Mondaq by contributing firms and their authors, with separate results for each country and for a range of topics.
How winners are chosen: Mondaq decides the awards on total readership during the award period.
The format: For each country, Mondaq names the top three placings across all topics and in each topic, and lists the Top Firms whose authors earned those placings.
What the award recognises
| Topic (India) | Placing | Article | Authors |
| Data Protection | #1 | Corporate Data Theft: A Major Concern | Anuradha Gandhi, Isha Sharma |
| Immigration | #1 | Look-Out Circular (LoC): Law, Rules And Cases | Nihit Nagpal, Akif Abidi |
Corporate data theft: Published on 18 October 2023, Anuradha Gandhi and Isha Sharma’s article looks at a growing problem: former employees who take confidential client lists, training materials and other data to set up rival businesses. It explains the remedies under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the general criminal law, the overlap with IP infringement, the liability of companies that fail to protect data, and the obligations of data fiduciaries under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. The same article also placed second in Technology in Spring 2024.
Look-Out Circulars: Published on 17 July 2024, Nihit Nagpal and Akif Abidi’s article explains what a Look-Out Circular is, the legal basis for issuing one, and how courts have balanced it against the right to travel abroad, drawing on a then-recent Delhi High Court order allowing a fintech founder facing a criminal case to travel.
Two practical questions businesses ask
What can we do when an ex-employee takes our data? Copying data from a company system without permission can lead to compensation under Section 43 of the IT Act, and disclosing information in breach of a lawful contract is an offence under Section 72A. Companies themselves can be liable under Section 43A if their security practices are inadequate. Strong confidentiality and assignment clauses in employment contracts, access controls and exit procedures make enforcement far easier.
Can a Look-Out Circular stop someone travelling? Yes. Issued under Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines, it alerts immigration checkpoints to stop or track a person, usually in a criminal investigation. Because the right to travel abroad is protected under Article 21 of the Constitution, courts can quash or suspend a Look-Out Circular, or permit travel on conditions, where it is not justified on the facts.
Criminal provisions referred to in the articles under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 are now found in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, which replaced it on 1 July 2024.
About S.S. Rana & Co.
S.S. Rana & Co. is a full-service IP and corporate law firm founded in 1989 and headquartered in New Delhi, with branch offices in Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Mumbai. Its lawyers write regularly on developments across IP, corporate, technology, data protection, criminal and regulatory law.
Recognition in 2024
| Publication | Recognition | Edition |
| Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards | Top Firms (India); #1 Data Protection; #1 Immigration | Autumn 2024 |
| Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards | Top Firms (India); four placed articles | Spring 2024 |
| Chambers Asia-Pacific | Band 3, Intellectual Property (India) | 2024 |
| WTR 1000 | Recommended firm | 2024 |
| The Patent Lawyer | Top 10 IP and patent law firms in India | 2024 |
See the Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards for India, Autumn 2024, our page on the firm’s Spring 2024 Top Firms recognition, and its 2024 recognition in Chambers Asia-Pacific, the WTR 1000 and The Patent Lawyer. Each recognition is recorded on our Awards page.
We congratulate Anuradha, Isha, Nihit and Akif, and thank the readers in India and around the world who engage with our work.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. S.S. Rana & Co. is listed among the Top Firms for India in the Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards, Autumn 2024, with first places in two topics.
“Corporate Data Theft: A Major Concern”, by Anuradha Gandhi and Isha Sharma, placed first in Data Protection, and “Look-Out Circular (LoC): Law, Rules And Cases”, by Nihit Nagpal and Akif Abidi, placed first in Immigration, both for India.
Mondaq decides the awards on total readership of articles published on its platform during the award period, with results for each country and for a range of topics.
Yes. Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, copying data from a computer system without permission can lead to compensation under Section 43, and disclosing information in breach of a lawful contract is an offence under Section 72A. The Supreme Court has held that the IT Act does not exclude the general criminal law in cases of hacking and data theft, and misuse of confidential material can also amount to breach of contract and IP infringement.
A Look-Out Circular is an alert issued to immigration checkpoints at airports and seaports to stop a person from leaving India, or to track their movement, usually because they are wanted in a criminal investigation. It is issued under guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs rather than a specific statute.
Yes. The right to travel abroad is part of personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution, as the Supreme Court recognised in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, so a person can ask a High Court to quash or suspend a Look-Out Circular, or to permit travel, depending on the facts.
Write to info@ssrana.com with a short description of your matter, and the firm will connect you with the right team.
For more information on Technology Law, Data Protection, Digital Personal Data Protection Act Compliance, Privacy Policies, Information Technology Act Compliance, Intermediary Guidelines, Deepfakes and AI Regulation, Personality Rights, Cyber Security Compliance, E-commerce Compliance, Software Licensing, SaaS Agreements, Online Content Takedowns and Regulatory Compliance in India write to us at info@ssrana.com