Woman board member: Over 300 NSE-listed companies yet to comply

Cheni/New Delhi, March 31: As many as 313 companies listed on the tiol Stock Exchange have not inducted a woman director as required by the Companies Act till Monday evening - a day before the deadline of having at least one woman on their board. The deadline for most of the listed companies to comply with the stipulation is set to expire on March 31. “Till yesterday (Monday), 313 companies out of 1,498 NSE listed companies have not complied with the legal requirement,” Prav Haldea, maging director, Prime Database, told IANS by phone.

The company operates in the database space pertaining to the primary capital market, covering fund raising by Indian corporates. He said many companies have inducted the close relatives of the promoters to comply with the law. “This is just compliance with the law in letter but not in spirit. There are good number of qualified and experienced women in India who could have been inducted by companies in their boards,” Haldea said.

Supreme Court advocate and insurance/company/competition law expert D. Varadarajan said: “Simply put, every listed company or every other public company having a paid up capital of Rs.100 crore or more or a turnover of Rs.300 crore or more should have a woman on their board.” A company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than Rs.50,000 but which may extend to Rs.500,000 under the company law, Varadarajan told IANS. According to Haldea, inducting relatives is a pan-India phenomenon though there are worthwhile exceptions to the general trend.  (IANS)