The provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the relevant Rules thereunder relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR) have come into effect from April 1, 2014. Since this concept is novel in India from a regulatory standpoint, several difficulties are bound to rise in its implementation. Matters are compounded further because the nature of the Act and Rules are extremely prescriptive in...
Maestro Engineers Per Incuriam: The Supreme Court on the Arbitrability of Fraud
In its recent decision in Swiss Timing Ltd, the Supreme Court has dealt with some important questions relating to arbitrability in Indian law. Swiss Timing, a (as the name suggests) Swiss company, was engaged by the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games (‘Delhi 2010’) in 2010 to provide timing, score and result systems for the CWG (‘TSR Contract’). After the conclusion of the games...
SEBI Consultation Paper on Crowdfunding
We have previously discussed the concept of crowdfunding and the broad nature of the legal issues that it might give rise to. Essentially, crowdfunding that involves the issue of securities (equity or debt) would attract the provisions of company law as well as securities laws. While specific crowdfunding legislation has been introduced in several countries (e.g. JOBS Act in the US), there has...
Guest Post: MCA notification on Audit Committee
[The following post is co-authored by Yogesh Chande and Manendra Singh. Yogesh is an Associate Partner and Manendra is an Associate with ELP. Views of the authors are personal.] In terms of section 177(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 (Act) read with rule 6 of the Companies (Meetings of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014 (Rules), following companies are required to constitute an audit committee:...
Guest Post: Identifying KMPs under Companies Act, 2013
[The following post is contributed by Shampita Das, who is an Associate at Vinod Kothari & Company. She can be contacted at [email protected]]...
Director Liability Under the New Regime
Types of Liability Being fiduciaries, directors are exposed to liabilities as a consequence of a breach of their duties. While liabilities may arise under various statutes, the focus here is on liabilities arising under company law. The first set of liabilities is statutory in nature, being specifically set forth in the Companies Act, 2013 (the 2013 Act). These could be either civil liability...
MCA Clarification on Independent Directors
Based on a request made by various stakeholders, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued a clarification explaining some of the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 relating to independent directors. Some of the aspects clarified include the following: – For the purposes of the definition of an independent director, the concept of “pecuniary relationship” will not include...
Guest Post: Deposits – Issues Under the Companies Act, 2013 – Part 2
[The following post is contributed by Madhusudan Bose, who is a lawyer and company secretary by profession, at PRA Law Offices, New Delhi This is the continuation of the previous post on the topic] 3. Amounts Received by a Company from Another Company Excluded from Scope of “Deposits” 3.1 Like in the Old Rules...
The Influence of Corporate Law Firms in Policy & Regulatory Change
The Harvard Law School Program for the Legal Profession has posted a new paper titled Notes from the Field: How India’s Corporate Law Firms are Influencing Her Legal, Policy and Regulatory Frameworks by Bhargavi Zaveri. The abstract of the paper is as follows: While the Indian legal profession has been widely acclaimed for leading socio-political movements during the country’s independence...
Guest Post: Deposits – Issues Under the Companies Act, 2013 – Part 1
[The following post is contributed by Madhusudan Bose, who is a lawyer and company secretary by profession, at PRA Law Offices, New Delhi] 1. Introduction 1.1 The company law in India prescribes stringent conditions for acceptance of deposits by any company. In the interests of the ordinary depositor, “deposits”...
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