Govt sets up Company Law Committee for implementation of Companies Act

The aim is to improve the ease of business and promote ease of living to law abiding corporates, fostering improved corporate compliance for stakeholders at large and also address emerging issues having impact on the working of corporates in the country. 

The committee with secretary, MCA as its chairman, will have T K  Viswanathan (ex-secretary general of Lok Sabha); Uday Kotak (MD of Kotak Mahindra Bank); Shardul S Shroff (executive chairman of Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co); Amarjit Chopra (senior partner, GSA Associates, New Delhi); Rajib Sekhar Sahoo (principal partner of chartered accountant firm SRB and Associates) Ajay Bahl (founder and managing partner of advocates and solicitors AZB and partners); G Ramaswamy (partner of Coimbatore-based chartered accountant firm G Ramaswamy & Co); and Sidharth Birla (chairman, Xpro India Limited); Preeti Malhotra (group president of corporate affairs and governance of Smart Group) as membes.

Joint secretary (policy) in the corporate affairs ministry will be the member secretary.

The committee has been tasked with the job of analysing the nature of the offences (compoundable and non-compoundable) and submit its recommendation as to whether any of the offences could be re-categorised as  ‘civil wrongs’ along with measures to optimise the compliance requirements under the Companies Act, 2013 and concomitant measures to provide further Ease of Doing Business.

It will examine the feasibility of introducing settlement mechanism, deferred prosecution agreement, etc, within the fold of the Companies Act, 2013.

Besides, the committee has been asked to study the existing framework under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 and suggest measures to plug the gaps, if any, while at the same time enhancing the Ease of Doing Business as also propose measures to further de-clog and improve the functioning of the NCLT.

The committee has been asked to suggest measures for removing any bottlenecks in the overall functioning of the statutory bodies like SFIO, IEPFA, NFRA, etc under the Act.

Further, it has been asked to identify specific provisions under the Companies Act, 2013 and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 which are required to be amended to bring about greater Ease of Living for the corporate stakeholders, including but not restricted to, review of forms under the two Acts and any other relevant recommendation as it may deem necessary.

The committee has been asked to submit its recommendations in phases and subject-wise to the government from time to time as may be decided by the chairperson of the committee.

The committee shall initially have a tenure of one year from the date of its first meeting.