Commercial Correspondence and Secretarial Practice · Ch 2 — Company Secretary
Companies Required to Appoint a Company Secretary
Companies Required to Appoint a Company Secretary
Not every company is bound by law to employ a whole-time Company Secretary — the Companies Act, 2013 links this obligation to a company's size rather than making it universal. Section 203(1), read with the rules framed under it, requires every listed company and every other company belonging to a class notified by the Central Government to appoint whole-time Key Managerial Personnel, which includes a Company Secretary. The actual rupee threshold — expressed in terms of paid-up share capital — is fixed not by the Act itself but by the Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014, and it has been revised more than once since the Rules were first notified, with a comparable, though separately set, threshold later extended to cover certain private companies as well. Because these figures live in subordinate rules that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs can amend, a student should focus on the underlying principle — that companies above a prescribed paid-up capital must have a whole-time Company Secretary — rather than memorise a rupee figure that may since have moved. …
A phrase used throughout the Companies Act, 2013 for a category of companies identified by rules made under the Act — usually by reference to paid-up share capital, turnover, or listing status — to which a particular statutory obligation applies. The duty to appoint a whole-time Company Secretary under Section 203 i …
A member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India who holds a valid certificate of practice and renders services — such as conducting a secretarial audit under Section 204 or certifying annual returns — to companies as an independent profess …