(1) No company shall directly or indirectly purchase its own or other specified —
(a) through any including its own subsidiary companies;
(b) through any investment company or group of investment companies; or
(c) if a default, is made by the company, in the repayment of accepted either before or after the commencement of this Act, interest payment thereon, redemption of or preference shares or payment of to any shareholder, or repayment of any term loan or interest payable thereon to any , or :
Provided that the buy-back is not prohibited, if the default is remedied and a period of three years has lapsed after such default ceased to subsist.
(2) No company shall, directly or indirectly, purchase its own shares or other specified securities in case such company has not complied with the provisions of sections 92, 123, 127 and section 129.(Effective from 01-04-2014)
(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.
Provided that— (a) the instruments referred to in Chapter III-D of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934; and
(b) such other instrument, as may be prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with Reserve Bank of India, issued by a company,
shall not be treated as debenture;