Ina Malhotra, Member - (1.) This petition has been filed u/s. 621A of the Companies Act, 1956 praying for compounding of the offence u/s. 96(1) of the Companies Act for holding the AGM belatedly.
(2.) As per the provision of Section 96(1) of the Companies Act 2013: "Every company, other than a One Person Company, shall in each year hold in addition to any other meeting, a general meeting as its annual general meeting and shall specify the meeting as such in the notices calling it, and not more than fifteen months shall elapse between the date of one annual general meeting of a company and that of the next."
(3.) The petitioner's offence relates to the financial year ending 31.03.2015. The AGM which should have been held by 30th Sept 2015 could only be held on 16th November, 2015 leading to a delay of 47 days, thus, violating the requirements of Section 96(1) of the Companies Act, 2013. As per the report of the RoC, since section 99 of the Companies Act had not been notified at the time of receipt of the present petition, penalty was recommended by them under the provisions of section 168 of the Companies Act, 1956, whereby the Company and every officer who is in default is punishable with a fine which may extend upto Rs. 50,000/-, with a further fine of Rs. 2500/- per day for every day during which the default continues. The RoC has thus recommended the maximum fine in terms of Section 168 of the Companies Act, 1956 which tantamounts to Rs. 1,67,500/- on the Company and each of the defaulting officers.;