Mumbai: As many as 120 companies on Monday rushed to announce the appointment of women directors on their board as the Sebi’s deadline to have a minimum one women board member comes into effect on Wednesday i.e., April 1, 2015. There are a large number of companies who are yet to comply with the Sebi guidelines and are likely to face stringent penal action. Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday reiterated that the regulator will not extend the deadline for the appointment of women directors on the board and all non-compliant firms will face stringent penal actions.
“There are still a lot of companies who are non -compliant with Sebi guidelines. It is surprising that still a large number of companies haven’t found a competent women director. Such non-compliance should be condemned,” said U.K. Sinha, chairman, Sebi while addressing a capital market seminar organised by CII. The Sebi chairman said that all non-compliant companies would face penal action as per Sebi provisions.
Industry experts said that the regulator enjoys vast powers under the Sebi Act to take multiple actions against erring companies, which may include imposition of monetary penalty on companies and their promoters or directors, freezing of promoters shareholding and debarring the company and its executives from accessing the capital market.
“I do think all the companies, especially PSUs, will be able to comply with the new regulations before the Sebi deadline. It would be interesting to see what actions Sebi decides to takes against these non-compliant companies,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director, Prime Database.
