Two day high profile meeting of Regulators of India’s Corporate Sector (ROCs and RDs) chaired by Secretary Corporate Affairs took place at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Manesar on the 19 & 20th of January, 2024.
In the workshop, besides the periodical review of the Inquiry, Inspections & Investigation cases, the review and stocktake of the pending prosecution complaints/chargesheets lying with various Courts was also conducted. Under the chairmanship of the Union Secretary, Corporate Affairs, the performance of each office and office bearers was evaluated jointly by the Additional Secretary and Director General Corporate Affairs. Emphasis was laid upon to take all the cases of Inquiry, Inspection and Investigation to the logical conclusion in time bound manner.
The pending Investigations are to be completed in time bound manner so as to file the charges sheets in the Courts wherever applicable and for others to go for the the in-house adjudication done by the respective Registrar of the Companies (ROC).
The Northern Region comprises the offices of ROC NCT of Delhi & Haryana, Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh, Chandigrah, Uttarakhand and Kanpur. ROC J&K was represented by Mr Haamid Bukhari and he apprised the top officials about the status of different cases for which the prosecution has been filed either in the Courts of CJMs or in the specialised courts of Additional Sessions Judges, Anti Corruption. Particular emphasis was laid upon the Non-compoundable cases pending before Sessions Court where the punishment is imprisonment for more than two years and upto 10 years.
Bukhari also apprised the higher ups about the status of different Investigations and Inquiries that the office in J&K is being allocated and mandated to complete.
Besides, the showcase studies of different Investigations was displayed to be replicated by other offices, like the Raids of ROC Chennai on certain firms and the search and seizure apparatus that was used to carry forward the proceedings. ROC Delhi gave a detailed power point presentation where in, he highlighted his crackdown on the companies unlawfully being controlled by the entities without disclosures. Further detailed discussions took place to fine-tune the Search and Seizure operations defined under the Companies Act, 2013. The stocktake exercise concluded with the setting of targets for each office towards the closure of this financial year, in terms of the prosecutions pending in the courts, and completion of the matters where in, Inquiry, Inspection and Investigations are going on.
