A government-appointed committee on Monday suggested restructuring of corporate offences under the companies law and an in-house adjudication mechanism to ensure that courts get more time to deal with serious violations. The panel also made suggestions to tackle the menace of shell companies, greater disclosures relating to public deposits raised by companies and other measures to improve corporate governance. The 10-member committee, which submitted its report to Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley, has made various recommendations as part of larger efforts to promote ease of doing business and better compliance levels. Chaired by Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas, the committee was set up last month to review the existing framework dealing with offences under the Companies Act, 2013 and related matters and make recommendations to promote better corporate compliance. “The Committee undertook a detailed analysis of all penal provisions, which were then broken down into eight categories based on the nature of offences. The Committee recommended that the existing rigour of the law should continue for serious offences, covering six categories, whereas for lapses that are essentially technical or procedural in nature, mainly falling under two categories may be shifted to in-house adjudication process,” the government said in a statement. The committee observed that this would serve the twin purposes promoting of ease of doing business and better corporate compliance, it said. It would also reduce the number of prosecutions filed in the special courts, which would, in turn, facilitate speedier disposal of serious offences and bring serious offenders to book.
