Q.State any five rights available to a member of a company under the Companies Act, 2013.

Membership of a company is valuable precisely because it comes bundled with a defined set of statutory rights, not just a certificate.

A member of a company enjoys a wide range of statutory rights under the Companies Act, 2013; five of the most important are described below.

First, the right to receive notice of every general meeting of the company (Section 101), and to attend and vote on resolutions at such meetings, ordinarily one vote for every equity share held (Section 47) — this is the core participatory right of membership of a company.

Second, the right to receive dividend once it has been declared by the company, in proportion to the amount paid up on the shares held (Section 123); a declared dividend, once approved, becomes a debt due to the member.

Third, the right to inspect certain statutory registers, including the register of members itself, and the register of charges, during business hours (Section 94), so that a member can verify particulars affecting his own holding and the company's overall position.

Fourth, the right to transfer his shares to another person, subject only to any reasonable restriction contained in the company's own articles (Sections 44 and 56) — since shares are, by law, movable property. …

Students sometimes list rights that actually belong to the company or the Board (such as declaring dividend, which is a Board recommendation confirmed by the members, not a right the me …