Company secretary and compliance rules

Dear Pavan,

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, vide a circular dated 11^th December, 2003, clarified that a company which is not required under law to employ a whole time secretary, but has nevertheless employed a whole-time Company Secretary within the meaning of Section 2(1)(c) of the Company Secretaries Act 1980, such a company is not required to obtain Compliance Certificate from a Practicing Company Secretary.

In other words, no company employing a full time Company Secretary is required to obtain a Compliance Certificate from a Practicing Company Secretary.

Since the concerned full time Company Secretary relinquished his position w.e.f. 31/12/2012 (he was still in his office in FY 2011-12), there is no need to submit Form 66 (Compliance Certificate) for the FY 2011-12.

From FY 2012-13 onwards, the company will have to submit Form 66.

If the full time Company Secretary concerned had relinquished his office on 01/04/2012, the compliance requirement would have been same as above.

Regards,

Veeral Gandhi