The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has suggested the Ministry of Corporate affairs to include about 10 secretarial standards in the Companies Bill 2009. The Bill already includes suggestions pertaining to general and board meetings of companies, said Vinayak S Khanvalkar, president, ICSI, at an interactive session here today. The ICSI has come out with ten secretarial standards—on meetings of the board of directors, general meetings, dividend, registers and records, minutes on transaction of shares and debentures, passing of resolution by circulation, affixing common seal, forfeiture of shares and board meetings. The standards were aimed at bringing more clarity in areas in which the law was either silent or ambiguous, said Khanvalkar. “These do not overstep or modify the law in any way. The standards also interpret it correctly for stakeholders' reference,” he said. The Bill was likely to be implemented by the end of this year, said Khanvalkar. ICSI has formulated an exposure draft of the referencer on secretarial audit recently. It has also constituted a core group for Vision 2020, a document aimed at meeting the expectations of the corporate world over the next decade. ICSI is also planning to come out with two new courses on corporate insolvency and competition laws for its members.
