Companies Act, 2013
165.
Number
of directorships .
1. No person, after the
commencement of this Act, shall hold office as a director, including any
alternate directorship, in more than twenty companies at the same time:
Provided
that the maximum number of public companies in which a person can be appointed
as a director shall not exceed ten.
Explanation .— For reckoning the
limit of public companies in which a person can be appointed as director,
directorship in private companies that are either holding or subsidiary company
of a public company shall be included.
1.
2. Subject to the
provisions of sub-section (1 ), the members of a company may, by special
resolution, specify any lesser number of companies in which a director of the
company may act as directors.
3. Any person holding
office as director in companies more than the limits as specified in
sub-section (1 ), immediately before the commencement of this Act shall,
within a period of one year from such commencement,—
a.
choose
not more than the specified limit of those companies, as companies in which he
wishes to continue to hold the office of director;
b.
resign
his office as director in the other remaining companies; and
c.
intimate
the choice made by him under clause (a ), to each of the companies in
which he was holding the office of director before such commencement and to the
Registrar having jurisdiction in respect of each such company.
1.
2.
3.
4. Any resignation made
in pursuance of clause (b ) of sub-section (3 ) shall become
effective immediately on the despatch thereof to the company concerned.
5. No such person shall
act as director in more than the specified number of companies,—
a.
after
despatching the resignation of his office as director or non-executive director
thereof, in pursuance of clause (b ) of sub-section (3 ); or
b.
after
the expiry of one year from the commencement of this Act, whichever is earlier.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. If a person accepts
an appointment as a director in contravention of sub-section (1 ), he
shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than five thousand rupees
but which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees for every day after the
first during which the contravention continues.