It is heartening to see the progressive orientation of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to company law administration in recent months. The spate of notifications and circulars issued by the Ministry to lighten its stranglehold on company law administration proves two points — given the right orientation company law administration can become meaningful and the existing company law is quite resilient to face the challenges of a globalising India.
Information Technology Act
Sec. 81 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, provides that the provisions of the Act would override other laws. Sec. 4 of the Act, provides that any law requiring anything to be done in the printed or typewritten form can also be done in the electronic mode. By intelligently referring to these provisions, the Ministry has introduced the electronic mode for compliance with some of the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956.
With the discontinuation of the postal facility of ‘Certificate of Posting' from March, in the context of Sec. 4 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Ministry has now clarified that service of documents under Sec. 53 of the Companies Act, 1956, can be made through the electronic mode once the members of the company have registered their e-mail addresses with the company (vide Circular No.17/2011 of the Ministry dated April 21, 2011).
Similarly, by Circular No. 18/2011 of the Ministry, dated April 29, 2011, it has been clarified that soft copy of the annual report of companies can be sent to registered e-mail addresses of their members in compliance of Sec. 219 (1) of the Companies Act, 1956.
Further more, vide Circular No. 21/2011 of the Ministry, dated May 2, 2011, an electronic platform for electronic voting process for postal ballot under Sec. 192A of the Companies Act, 1956, has been allowed subject to certain normal conditions.
thehindu.com
