AMENDMENT IN COMPANIES (MEETING OF BOARD AND ITS POWERS) RULES, 2014
Background
Ministry of Corporate Affairs (“MCA”) vide its Circular dated 15th June, 2021 has issued Companies (Meeting of Board and its Powers) Amendment Rules, 2021 and has omitted Rule 4 of the Companies (Meeting of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014 furthermore has provided relaxation to hold the Board meetings via Video Conferencing (“VC”) or other audio visual means (“OAVM”) on restricted items.
Key Highlight of the Amendment
Now, through Companies (Meeting of Board and its Powers) Amendment Rules, 2021, Rule 4 related to the matters not to be dealt with in meeting through video conferencing or other audio visual means has been omitted.
This is the first time MCA has omitted such a requirement earlier it has issued extensions in the holding of meetings via VC or OAVM.
Accordingly, now all the companies are free to discuss and approve the matters related to the approval of the annual financial statements, approval of Board’s report, the approval of the prospectus, the Audit Committee Meetings for [consideration of financial statement including consolidated financial statement if any]; and the approval of the matter relating to amalgamation, merger, demerger, acquisition, and takeover, in any meeting held through video conferencing or other audio visual means.
Impact of the Amendment
This omission has relaxed the Indian industries to now focus on the revival of the business after the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy since March 2020. It comes to the time when Indian economy is on strong recovery mode and several international organisations and rating agencies have already upgraded the growth forecasts for 2021 after a disappointing 2020 due to Covid-induced lockdown.
Source:- https://egazette.nic.in/WriteReadData/2021/227614.pdf
