Companies Act 2013

The Companies Act 2013
Parliament of India
  • An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to companies.
CitationThe Companies Act, 2013
Territorial extentIndia
Enacted byParliament of India
Signed byPresident of India
Signed29 August 2013
Commenced12 September 2013 (98 sections)
1 April 2014 (184 sections)
Legislative history
Bill titleThe Companies Bill, 2012
Bill citationBill No. 121-C of 2011
Repeals
The Companies Act, 1956
Amended by
The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020
Status: In force

The Companies Act 2013 (No. 18 of 2013) is an Act of the Parliament of India which forms the primary source of Indian company law. It received presidential assent on 29 August 2013, and largely superseded the Companies Act 1956.

The Act was brought into force in stages. Section 1 of this act came into force on 30 August 2013. 98 different sections came into force on 12 September 2013 with a few changes.[1][2] A total of another 183 sections came into force from 1 April 2014.[3] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs thereafter published a notification exempting private companies from the ambit of various sections under the act.[4]

The Act increased the responsibilities of corporate executives in the information technology sector, increasing India's safeguards against organised cybercrime by allowing CEOs and CTOs to be prosecuted in cases of IT failure.

The Act established the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which was constituted on 1 June 2016, based on the recommendation of the Justice Eradi committee on the law relating to insolvency and winding up of companies.[5] Further, the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) was established in March 2018 as an oversight body to investigate matters of professional misconduct by Chartered accountants or CA firms.[6]

  1. ^ "Commencement Notification Of Companies Act 2013" (PDF). Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 January 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  2. ^ Varma, Sindhu. "India: New Companies Act, 2013 – The Cat Is Finally Out". Mondaq. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
  3. ^ "MCA notifies 183 sections of Companies Act 2013". Business Standards. 26 March 2014. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
  4. ^ "MCA lays draft notification us 462 for Private Companies in Parliament". Archived from the original on 13 February 2015. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
  5. ^ "Organisation | NCLT". Archived from the original on 21 March 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Cabinet To Notify Audit Regulator NFRA, Approves Draft Rules", Bloomberg Quint, 1 March 2018, archived from the original on 2 March 2018