I. INTRODUCTION:

It is an established fact that the present Government is giving more emphasis on the concept of Ease of Doing Business and to address the existing issues the Government has decided to constitute a Committee on Company Law to examine the issues in the implementation of the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. The Committee on Company Law will give its recommendations to the Government on the working of Companies Act, 2013 and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. The Committee on Company Law will conduct in-depth research on the above-mentioned Acts and will examine that what kind of issues are coming in the way of implementing the provisions of Companies Act, 2013 and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. The Committee on Company Law will be providing solutions or suggestions to the Government in respect of the issues prevailing in the implementation of the provisions of Companies Act, 2013 and Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008. The Committee is chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). To assist the chairman of the Committee on Company Law there are 10 other members who will be helping the committee to fulfil its goal. The Committee on Company Law shall initially have a tenure of one year from the date of its first meeting.

II. LIST OF MEMBERS:

1. Secretary, MCA, Chairman.
2. T. K. Viswanathan, Ex- Secretary-General, Lok Sabha, Member.
3. Shri Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Member.
4. Shri Shardul S Shroff, Executive Chairman, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co., Member.
5. Shri Amarjit Chopra, Senior Partner, GSA Associates, New Delhi, Member.
6. Shri Rajib Sekhar Sahoo, Principal Partner, SRB & Associates, Chartered Accountants, Bhubaneswar, Member.
7. Shri Ajay Bahl, Founder and Managing Partner, AZB & Partners, Advocates & Solicitors, Member.
8. Shri G. Ramaswamy, Partner, G. Ramaswamy & Co. Chartered Accountants, Coimbatore, Member.
9. Shri Sidharth Birla, Chairman, Xpro India Limited, Member
10. Preeti Malhotra, Group President, Corporate Affairs & Governance, Smart Group, Member.
11. Joint Secretary (Policy), Member Secretary.

III. OBJECTIVES OF THE COMMITTEE:

1. Analyze the nature of the offences (compoundable and non- compoundable) and submit its recommendation as to whether any of the offences could be re-categorized as ‘civil wrongs’ along with measures to optimize the compliance requirements under the Companies Act, 2013 and concomitant measures to provide further Ease of Doing Business;
2. Examine the feasibility of introducing settlement mechanism, deferred prosecution agreement, etc., within the fold of the Companies Act, 2013;
3. 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;
4. Propose measures to further de-clog and improve the functioning of the NCLT;
5. Suggest measures for removing any bottlenecks in the overall functioning of the statutory bodies like SFIO, IEPFA, NFRA, etc. under the Act ;
6. 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;
7. Any other relevant recommendation as it may deem necessary[1].

[1] Read the official notification here, https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1585492.