valid as on 12/12/2024

Section 165. Number of directorships
Effective from 01-04-2014

Regulation 26 of LODR

(1)  , after the commencement of this Act, shall hold office as a  , including any alternate directorship, in more than twenty companies at the same time:

Provided that the maximum number of public companies in which a person can be appointed as a director shall not exceed ten.

 Explanation.— For reckoning the limit of public companies in which a person can be appointed as director, directorship in that are either holding or of a shall be included.

(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (1), the of a company may, by special resolution, specify any lesser number of companies in which a director of the company may act as directors.

(3) Any person holding office as director in companies more than the limits as specified in sub-section (1), immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, within a period of one year from such commencement,—

(a) choose not more than the specified limit of those companies, as companies in which he wishes to continue to hold the office of director;

(b) resign his office as director in the other remaining companies; and

(c) intimate the choice made by him under clause (a), to each of the companies in which he was holding the office of director before such commencement and to the having jurisdiction in respect of each such company.

(4) Any resignation made in pursuance of clause (b) of sub-section (3) shall become effective immediately on the despatch thereof to the company concerned.

(5) No such person shall act as director in more than the specified number of companies,—

(a) after despatching the resignation of his office as director or non-executive director thereof, in pursuance of clause (b) of sub-section (3); or

(b) after the expiry of one year from the commencement of this Act, whichever is earlier.

If a person accepts an appointment as a director in violation of this section, he shall be liable to a penalty of two thousand rupees for each day after the first during which such violation continues, subject to a maximum of two lakh rupees.

(6) If a person accepts an appointment as a director in contravention of sub-section (1), he shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than five thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees for every day after the first during which the contravention continues.

 

Section 165 (1) shall not apply to section 8 companies. Refer notification no. G.S.R. 466(E) dated 5th June, 2015.

(The exceptions, modifications and adaptations provided above shall be applicable only to those companies covered under section 8 of the said act which has not committed a default in filing its financial statements under section 137 of the said act or annual return under section 92 of the said act with the registrar, vide notification dated 13th June, 2017)

To view the notification,Click Here

2(34) Director means a director appointed to the Board of a company
Numbered vide Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 dated 03.01.2018 effective from 09.02.2018. To view the notification,Click Here
2(68) Private company means a company having a minimum paid-up share capital as may be prescribed, and which by its articles, —

(i) restricts the right to transfer its shares;

(ii) except in case of One Person Company, limits the number of its members to two hundred:

Provided that where two or more persons hold one or more shares in a company jointly, they shall, for the purposes of this clause, be treated as a single member:

Provided further that—

(A) persons who are in the employment of the company; and

(B) persons who, having been formerly in the employment of the company, were members of the company while in that employment and have continued to be members after the employment ceased, shall not be included in the number of members; and

(iii) prohibits any invitation to the public to subscribe for any securities of the company 

2(87) Subsidiary Company or Subsidiary, in relation to any other company (that is to say the holding company), means a company in which the holding company—

(i) controls the composition of the Board of Directors; or

(ii) exercises or controls more than one-half of the total voting power either at its own or together with one or more of its subsidiary companies:

Provided that such class or classes of holding companies as may be prescribed shall not have layers of subsidiaries beyond such numbers  as may be prescribed.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this clause,—

(a) a company shall be deemed to be a subsidiary company of the holding company even if the control referred to in sub-clause (i) or sub-clause (ii) is of another subsidiary company of the holding company;

(b) the composition of a company’s Board of Directors shall be deemed to be controlled by another company if that other company by exercise of some power exercisable by it at its discretion can appoint or remove all or a majority of the directors;

(c) the expression “company” includes any body corporate;

(d) “layer” in relation to a holding company means its subsidiary or subsidiaries.

2(71) Public company means a company which—

(a) is not a private company; and

(b) has a minimum paid-up share capital, as may be prescribed:

Provided that a company which is a subsidiary of a company, not being a private company, shall be deemed to be public company for the purposes of this Act even where such subsidiary company continues to be a private company in its articles

Inserted vide Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 dated 03.01.2018 effective from 09.02.2018. To view the notification,Click Here
2(55) Member in relation to a company, means—

(i) the subscriber to the memorandum of the company who shall be deemed to have agreed to become member of the company, and on its registration, shall be entered as member in its register of members;

(ii) every other person who agrees in writing to become a member of the company and whose name is entered in the register of members of the company;

(iii) every person holding shares of the company and whose name is entered as a beneficial owner in the records of a depository

2(75) Registrar means a Registrar, an Additional Registrar, a Joint Registrar, a Deputy Registrar or an Assistant Registrar, having the duty of registering companies and discharging various functions under this Act
Substituted vide Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 dated 28.09.2020 with effect from 21.12.2020. To view the Act, Click Here. To view the commencement notification, Click Here 
Substituted vide the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2019 dated 31.07.2019 w.e.f., 02.11.2018. To view the Amendment Act,Click Here. To view the Ordinance, 2018 Click Here

Commencement Notification dated 09.02.2018


Commencement Notification under Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 dated 21.12.2020


Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020 dated 28.09.2020


Enforcement Notification S.O. 902(E) dated 26/03/2014


Exemptions to Section 8 Companies [Amendment to GSR 466(E)] dated 13/06/2017


Exemptions to Section 8 companies [GSR 466 (E)] dated 05/06/2015


The Companies (Accounts) Amendment Rules, 2018 dated 31.07.2018


The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Effective from 03.01.2018)


The Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 dated 02.11.2018 [repealed vide the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019]


The Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 dated 12.01.2019 w.e.f., 02.11.2018


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