On 26 March 2021, the Supreme Court of India pronounced its much-awaited ruling in Tata Consultancy Services Limited v. Cyrus Investments Pvt. Ltd. The Court found that the allegations of oppression and prejudice raised by the Mistry group could not be sustained, and hence declined to grant any relief. It answered all the legal questions raised in favour of the Tata group. In a sense, this forces...
SEBI’s Consultation Paper Makes Minority-Shareholder Friendly Proposals on Independent Directors
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) has released a consultation paper making minority-shareholder friendly proposals mainly relating to independent directors (“IDs”). The paper proposes a dual-approval process for appointment and removal of IDs, which includes a “majority of minority shareholders” approval. If this approval is not received, a...
SEBI Consults on Risk Management Committee
Risk management has acquired a crucial status in corporate governance. Its importance tends to get accentuated in the wake of crises. The concept came to the forefront after the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, and it became entrenched in specific sectors such as banking and financial services that were severely affected by the crisis. Even industrial accidents such as the BP oil...
Regulating Listed PSUs for Disclosures and Transparency
[Gaurav Pingle is a practising company secretary] True, fair, adequate and timely disclosures form one of the basic tenets of governance in listed companies and are essential for maintaining the integrity of the securities market. Timely disclosures of material events are of significant importance. They also bring about transparency and enable the investors to take an informed investment or...
Analysing MCA’s Proposed Framework on Business Responsibility Reporting
[Yash More and Hitoishi Sarkar are III year students at Gujarat National Law University] On August 18, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”) released the Consultation Paper on the format for Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting in India. Interestingly, on August 11, 2020, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) had also released the Report of the Committee...
The Future of Virtual Meetings under the Companies Act
[Gaurav Pingle is a Practising Company Secretary and Renucka Vaiddya a Research Associate at Gaurav Pingle & Associates] The Companies Act, 2013 has, at the outset, provided for conducting board meetings through video conferencing. In Achintya Kumar Barua v Ranjit Barthkur [2018] 91 taxmann.com 123, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) held section 173(2) of the Act read with...
SEBI Tightens Reins over the Proxy Advisory Industry
Proxy advisory firms have acquired the status of an important corporate governance intermediary. This is not just globally, but also in India. They play a crucial role of providing voting advice to shareholders (particularly of the institutional variety). In India, the advent of the proxy advisory industry over the last year has invigorated the active participation of institutional shareholders...
RBI’s Discussion Paper on Bank Governance
Corporate governance in banks and financial institutions has captured a great deal of attention lately in India. One may attribute this to high profile episodes involving governance issues in banks such as ICICI Bank as well as Yes Bank, both involving the former chief executive officers (CEOs). There is generally a sense that universal corporate governance norms prescribed by the securities...
The Prospect of AI in the ‘Virtual’ Corporate Boardroom
[Rongeet Poddar is a 5th Year student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on businesses around the world. The crisis has forced regulators to come up with prompt responses to maintain social distancing norms in companies. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has allowed companies to conduct virtual meetings. The Securities and...
Corporate Governance in the Age of a Pandemic
Experience from past crises suggests that companies with robust corporate governance systems and practices are able to weather a storm better than others. Similarly, it is reasonable to hypothesize that, even amid the throes of a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, referred to in corporate speak at an “unknown unknown” that has sparked a systemic risk, well governed companies can more optimally...
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