The Britishers are generally very nimble with their words - they choose, or at least seem to be choosing, their words with lot of thought. Sure enough, as for the Companies Act 1948, based on Cohen Committee Report of 1945, was drafted some of the best legal luminaries. The lawmakers were very careful with words - even seemingly interchangeable words like attached and annexed were distinguished clearly - see sec 222 of the Indian 1956 Act. Such a rich legacy of law has now been overwritten by draftsmen who fail to understand the distinction between clarification and notification. The MCA circular of 4th April 2014 [mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/General_Circular_8_2014.pdf] is actually a circular but says it is hereby notified. The Rules about Video conferencing make reference to adoption of accounts by the audit committee - first of all, neither does the audit committee adopt accounts, nor does the board for that matter. They simply recommend to the shareholders, who approve and adopt the same. Secondly, accounts is a vague word - quarterly, half-yearly and annual financial statements are all accounts. Compliance professions are known for their precision of language. If we need to say, a general meeting, we will not say annual general meeting, as we know these two are different. But then, all such compliance professionals are now required to make sense out of the gibberish scattered all over the Companies Rules, and to comply with the same, with serious consequences of non-compliance. Was this country short of drafting skills? Or is it a mere arrogance or ad-hocism?
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 03:43:09 +0000
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