Companies Act

Company Law

Background

The law on minority squeeze-out has not been a glorious chapter in the history of India’s company law. The Parliament, as a matter of legislative policy, appears to be uncomfortable with enacting a law that forces minority shareholders to compulsory sell their shares. The government perceives it as a kind of ‘expropriation’. Hence, despite Dr. JJ Irani Committee’s specific recommendation, our Parliament has adopted a conservative approach while providing majority shareholders with the mechanism to ‘buyout’ the shares held by the minority shareholders. Even after the ‘right to property’ was abolished as a fundamental right under our Constitution, law makers seem uncomfortable in giving such right to majority shareholders, and half-hearted attempts have been made to provide majority shareholders with the ability to fully own a company.Continue Reading Minority squeeze-out under our Company Law – Is it a legislative policy dilemma?

Decoding SEBI’s latest amendments to the RPT regime

Background

After a prolonged and anxious wait, on November 9, 2021, SEBI finally notified its far-reaching amendments to the regulatory regime for Related Party Transactions (“RPT”). The amendments[1] to the RPT regulatory regime under the SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015 (“LODR”), have their genesis in the Report of the Working Group on RPTs (“WG Report”), which was issued by SEBI on January 27, 2020.Continue Reading Decoding SEBI’s latest amendments to the RPT regime

MCA’s Notification on Section 67 of the Companies Act, 2013

Introduction

One aspect which English Company Law has always grappled with is the manner in which the capital of a company should be protected for the benefit of its creditors. Way back in 1887, in its celebrated decision in Trevor v Whitworth[1], the House of Lords held that the statutory restrictions on a company’s power to reduce its capital “is to prohibit every transaction between a company and a shareholder, by means of which the money already paid to the company in respect of his shares is returned to him”.Continue Reading MCA’s Notification on Section 67 of the Companies Act, 2013 – Is it an Exemption or an Inclusion under the Henry VIII Clause?

Benami Act

Introduction

Coinciding with the demonetisation of currencies by the Government of India in 2016, the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, was substantially amended and renamed as the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988 (“Benami Act”). The Benami Act was brought into effect from November 01, 2016. It was a well-timed move to ensure that demonetisation doesn’t become a futile exercise.Continue Reading Declarations of beneficial interest under the Companies Act vis-à-vis the Benami Act: No immunity and no “Ganga Snan”!

Rights Issue – Is the Board’s Discretion to Allot Unsubscribed Shares Absolute?

Introduction

Rights issue, as the term denotes, is the recognition of an inherent right of an equity shareholder against dilution of his shareholding in the company. It is a pre-emptive right of the equity shareholder to subscribe to his proportionate share in all further issuance of equity shares.Continue Reading Rights Issue – Is the Board’s Discretion to Allot Unsubscribed Shares Absolute?

IS THE AUDIT PROFESSION AT CROSS-ROADS

Introduction

Recent amendments to the statutory framework under the Companies Act, 2013 (“the Act”), have cast focus on the ever-expanding statutory duties of the auditors of a company. The purpose of an audit is to enhance the degree of confidence of users of the financial statements. In this regard, Section 129 of the Act provides that the financial statements prepared by a company should comply with three prime conditions:
Continue Reading Gatekeepers of Governance – The Statutory Auditor

New CSR Regime – Is it a philanthropy or a tax levy?

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”), Govt of India, notified the amendments to Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (“the Act”), (dealing with CSR contribution), by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019 (“2019 Amendment”), and the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 (“2020 Amendment”), on January 22, 2021. The MCA has also notified the Companies (CSR Policy) Amendment Rules, 2021 (“new CSR Rules”), which has made some fundamental changes to the CSR Rules, 2014.
Continue Reading New CSR Regime – Is it a philanthropy or a tax levy?

New disclosure obligation in Financial Statements for companies holding cryptocurrencies - Are Regulators testing waters?

Context

India is witnessing a rapid increase in the number of crypto exchanges as well as cryptocurrency transactions. As per publicly available data, the average daily cryptocurrency trading volumes across the top Indian exchanges have grown nearly 500% from March 2020 to December 2020. Globally, countries such as Switzerland, Singapore and the US have been pro-active in undertaking cryptocurrency transactions, and simultaneously creating a robust regulatory framework for the same. In fact, investors from these countries have also been investing in Indian cryptocurrency exchanges.
Continue Reading New disclosure obligation in Financial Statements for companies holding cryptocurrencies – Are Regulators testing waters?