STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: To advocate the need, concept, scope of Secretarial Standards amongst corporates, the ICSI organised a national seminar on Secretarial Standards here on Saturday.
Section 118(10) of the Companies Act, 2013 mandates every company to observe Secretarial Standards with respect to General and Board Meetings specified by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and approved as such by the Central Government. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has accorded its approval to the Secretarial Standards on Meetings of the Board of Directors (SS-1) and General Meetings (SS-2) specified by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. The Secretarial Standards have been notified and published in the gazette of India Extraordinary Part III Section 4. These will be effective from 1st July, 2015.
While addressing the gathering, A.K Chaturvedi, Regional Director (Northern Region), Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, said that these standards will boost the confidence of investors and will help the corporate world in achieving the Prime Minister’s initiative – Make in India in the current era of Liberalisation and Globalisation.
CS Pavan Kumar Vijay, former President, ICSI and Chairman, Secretarial Standards Board, ICSI provided the overview of Secretarial Standards and Vision of Secretarial Standards Board. He said that Secretarial Standards issued by ICSI is a tool in furtherance of the Secretarial Standards would benefit the industry and the regulators and would help repose more confidence in the institutional investors about the adoption of robust board processes and systems in companies. All the active Companies (except One Person Company) in India will now have to follow these standards, he added.
Rajiv Bajaj, Council Member, ICSI said that the mandate of the Companies Act, 2013 with regard to the Secretarial Standards can be attributed to the fact that the Standards have sufficiently evolved as these are being voluntarily followed by followed companies. He further added that, it would definitely result in better corporate accountability and disclosures leading to better value enhancement to stakeholders including shareholder, regulators and international investors.
CS Atul H Mehta, President, ICSI while delivering the Presidential address said that the Secretarial Standards (SS) namely, SS:1 Secretarial Standard on Meetings of Board of Directors and SS:2 Secretarial Standard on General Meetings issued by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India will be effective 1st July, 2015 around 10 lakh active companies in India will have to comply with these Secretarial Standards to be fully compliant under Companies Act 2013. The Secretarial Standards would help in ease of doing business, improved governance, confidence building in minds of investors, improved compliance level, ultimately leading to flow of capital in India, new projects, more modernization and expansion.
P.K Malhotra, Law Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India delivered the valedictory address. CS Vineet Chaudhary, Council member, The ICSI and Chairman of the Corporate Laws and Governance Committee, presented welcome address.
CS N.P.S Chawla, Chairman, NIRC of the ICSI conducted proceedings of the programme. CS Alka Kapoor, Joint Secretary, ICSI briefed the gathering on Making of Secretarial Standards. CS Sutanu Sinha, Chief Executive and Officiating Secretary, ICSI delivered vote of thanks.
The National Seminar on Secretarial Standards was addressed by experts of eminence including M.M Juneja, Joint Director, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, CS Ahalada Rao, Council Member ICSI and Member, SSB and Practising Company Secretary, CS G.P Madaan, Member, SSB and Founder and CEO, Corporate Knowledge Foundation, CS Alok Kumar Kuchhal, Chairman, Noida Chapter of ICSI, CS Lalit Jain, former Senior Vice President and Company Secretary, Jubiliant Life Sciences Ltd and Member SSB and Practising Company Secretary, CS Sanjay Grover, Past Council Member and member SSB and Practising Company Secretary, CS N.K Jain, Corporate Advisor and Former Secretary and CEO, ICSI and CS Saurabh Kalia, Partner, Sastra Legal and Regional Council Member, NIRC of ICSI.