Cos Act: Norms on women, independent dirs effective from April

Many new norms, including compulsory requirement of appointing women directors, will come into force from April 1 for companies as relevant transition timelines ends today.
The norms, part of the Companies Act, 2013, whose most provisions came into effect from April 1 last year.
Corporate Affairs Ministry, which is implementing the Act, had provided transition time for eligible entities to comply with certain norms.
Certain class of companies are required to have at least one woman director on their boards.
Sai Venkateshwaran, Partner and Head, Accounting Advisory Services, KPMG in India said that transition timelines related to some regulations would be ending today.

"In implementing the Companies Act, 2013, companies were given a one-year time frame to comply with some of the requirements such as induction of independent directors and women directors, setting up of committees of the board...

"These requirements will now become applicable from 1 April, 2015, on expiry of the transition timelines," he said.
Transition time was also provided for compliance with regard to setting up of audit committee, nomination and remuneration committee, and compliance with limits on directorships, among others.
Under the Act, a public company should have at least three directors, while the requirement is of two directors for private companies.

Besides listed companies, other public entities having paid up share capital of Rs 100 crore or more and a minimum turnover of Rs 300 crore are required to have at least one woman director on their boards. For compliance, the Act provided one-year time that ends today.
Two independent directors are compulsory for public companies having at least Rs 10 crore paid up capital and those with a minimum of Rs 100 crore turnover, among others.
The norm would also be applicable on public companies which in aggregate have "outstanding loans, debentures and deposits, exceeding Rs 50 crore".