RELAXATION IN FILING APPLICATION FOR EXTENSION OF TIME IN HOLDING ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR ENDED ON 31ST MARCH 2020.
In continuation with our last newsletter shared on May 6, 2020 on circular issued by Ministry of Corporate Affairs easing the compliance to hold Annual General Meeting (AGM) through Video Conferencing (VC) or other audio-visual means (OAVM). Ministry of Corporate affairs has further issued a General circular dated August 17th 2020 liberalizing the provision of Companies Act 2013 and rules made there under to allow companies to hold their Annual General meeting for financial year ended March 31, 2020 beyond statutory period provided under Section 96 i.e. September 30th 2020.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs stated that the Company whose financial year has ended on 31st March 2020 and is unable to conduct their AGM in accordance with framework provided for conducting the AGM through VC or OAVM on or before September 30, 2020 can seek for extension of time in holding AGM by filing their application in form GNL-1 with the Registrar of the Companies on or before September 29, 2020.
It should be noted that the provision for getting extension in holding Annual General meeting by filling Form GNL 1 to Registrar of Company subsists before also however company needed to justify the reason why such extension was required. However for holding Annual General meeting for Financial years 2020 Ministry of Corporate affairs has advised Registrars of Companies to consider applications received in Form GNL-1 for extension of AGM date liberally in view of the hardships faced by the Company due to the ongoing COVID pandemic and to grant extension for the period as applied for (up to three months) in such applications.
It should be further note that the due date to hold AGM is still September 30, 2020 and the due date has not been extended yet. Further if a company is unable to hold AGM within due date then can file Form GNL-1 to ROC for getting extension maximum up to 3 months