Amendments to the Company Secretaries Act, 1980

The Council in its meeting held on November 22, 2013 unanimously decided to approach Central Government seeking the following amendments to the Company Secretaries Act, 1980 on priority:

a. While the name of the Institute remains ICSI, its members may be named as governance professionals;

b. All consequential amendments (inrelation to naming the members) in the Act as well as in other Acts such as Companies Act, Securities laws, FEMA, CCI Act, etc. may also be carried out;

c. Keeping in view increasing responsibilities of company secretaries / governance professionals, the regulatory regime may be amended to provide for an adjudication panel, chief regulatory officer, and appeals on the lines envisaged by the Srikrishna Committee. The details under this item may be finalised by President and Mr. Ahmad, Immediate Past President.

2. The Council, however, felt that since there were only eight members present in the meeting, the above decision may be taken up with Central Government only if another four members give positive consent so that the approval is with the support of substantial strength of the Council. It authorised President to seek consent of every member who was not present in the meeting and send a proposal to Central Government only after receiving consent of four more members. The Council also decided to place on its web site the communication made to Government in this regard.

3. President and Immediate Past President had several meetings to finalise the proposal for consideration of Central Government. However, both of them held the view that the change in the regulatory regime would require extensive consultation within the Cabinet, Government and Parliament and hence this may be taken up separately along with the recommendations of Justice Srikrishna Committee. To meet the immediate need, they decided to seek amendments only to change the nomenclature from company secretary to governance professional and incidental matters.

4. In the meantime positive consent was received from four members of the Council. Accordingly, President has sent a letter dated December 4, 2013 (Annexed) to Central Government seeking amendments to the Company Secretaries Act, 1980. “