Mumbai: The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has issued notices to 260 companies, including 115 actively traded companies for their failure to appoint one women director on their board. The deadline to appointment one women director on the board of listed companies ended on March 31, 2015. Last week, in a similar move, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) had sent notices to over 500 companies for non-compliance with the above rules.
“In case the companies remain non compliant, as per Sebi circular dated April 8, 2015, the exchanges are advised to levy fines on listed companies for non-compliance with the requirement of Clause 49 II (A) (1) i.e. non-appointment of woman director on quarterly basis,” NSE said in a statement. A BSE official said that the exchange had shared the list of non-compliant companies with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and suitable actions would be taken against erring companies according to the relevant provisions.
In April this year, the capital market regulator prescribed a four-staged penalty structure wherein fine would increase with the period of delay in complying with the said norms. According to the guidelines, non-compliant firms, which will comply with the regulatory requirement between April 1 and June 30, will have to pay a penalty of Rs 50,000.
Those complying between June 30 and September 30, 2015 will have to pay a penalty of Rs50,000 plus Rs 1,000 per day from July 1 to the date of compliance. Companies that comply after October 1 will have to pay Rs1.42 lakh along with a fine of Rs5,000 a day from 1 October till the date of compliance. In April, the regulator had warned of further action including against promoters and director if companies remain non-compliant after October 1, 2015.
