Q.The term 'Deposit' is defined under Section ____ of the Companies Act, 2013.

This tests whether a student can tell apart the DEFINITION section from the PROCEDURAL sections that regulate what is done with that definition.

The Companies Act, 2013 keeps its definitions section separate from its operative, procedural sections. Section 2 is the Act's general definitions clause, and clause (31) of Section 2 is specifically where 'deposit' is defined — as any receipt of money by a company by way of deposit, loan, or in any other form, excluding categories the Rules prescribe.

Sections 73, 74 and 76, by contrast, are all OPERATIVE provisions that apply this definition rather than create it: Section 73(1) prohibits deposits from the public generally and Section 73(2) permits deposits from members subject to conditions; Section 74 deals with the repayment of deposits accepted before the commencement of the Act; and Section 76 permits an eligible company to invite deposits from the public at large, subject to a stricter set of conditions. A student who confuses the definitional home of a term with the sections that regulate its use will mis-answer this kind of question even while understanding the substance perfectly well — which is exactly the distinction this question is testing.

A very common wrong choice is (a) 73, since Section 73 is the section a student encounters most often in this chapter — but Section 73 REGULATES deposits, it does not DEFINE the term 'deposit' itself.