Shell companies are in focus in India today. Given this context, what a shell company means is very different from what is generally understood, especially as there is no legal definition for it in India. US Security Exchange Commission (SEC) provides a narrow definition of the shell company as a publicly held company in [...]
On December 31, 1600, East India Company was formed by the grant of a charter by the English Parliament. Though not the first joint stock company to be formed, it was perhaps the most influential company in the global corporate history, surviving for over 270 years before being liquidated on June 1, 1874. During this [...]
Law is distinct from all other aspects of regulations, as its breach involves punishment. This punishment may be either a monetary penalty or loss of personal freedom for specific duration or both, and in some extreme cases, loss of the human life itself. Given that the punishment in itself is quite harsh and carries [...]
Landing on the moon, Neil Armstrong said ‘That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind’. On a similar vein, Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Jt. Secretary to the Government of India may as well have remarked, ‘One small notification issued, one giant leap for enforcing the company law.’ By notification dated June 13, [...]
Imagine a banking customer handing over their ATM card and PIN number to another person for withdrawing cash. What do we make of that person? A gullible fool, an imbecile or a digital idiot. How many such persons would exist in India today? A handful, tiny, miniscule minority of the ATM customers at the [...]
Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia on April 29th brought into public domain something that is well known to the corporate professionals, 8-9 lakhs of the 15 lakh registered companies in India do not file their annual return with the Ministry of Company Affairs. A brief review and enquiry for this wide-spread non-compliance reveals three specific [...]
The recent debate generated by the compensation recommended to the Chief Operating Officer in Infosys has brought into focus the need for defining the contours of a well-crafted Remuneration Philosophy. While opinions can vary, what needs to be assessed is the consistency with which the articulated remuneration philosophy is practiced. This need is recognized [...]
As we completed our analysis for the Secretarial Audit Reports: Trends and Practices in 2016, we found a few data points of interest that attracted our attention. As in the previous year our population for this study was S&P BSE 500 Companies, which represents the cream of Indian Corporate Sector. It is possible that [...]
4R’s form the basis for enforcement of any law; Companies Act, 2013, is no exception. Registration, the first R give the registrant a right which is denied to others. Company law too requires registration for giving registrants the benefit of limited liability by giving them a certificate of incorporation along with a unique Company [...]
A critical test of good corporate governance for a company is how it deals with Related Party Transactions (RPTs). While the Companies Act, 2013 has laid down what should be done, it is the job of the Company Secretary to ensure that it gets done. Conceptually the Companies Act, 2013 identifies four basic aspects [...]
