Indian Company Law
Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017
A section-wise guide to Act No. 1 of 2018, which further amended the Companies Act, 2013.
Current-law note: The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 is an amending enactment. Its provisions were brought into force on different dates through Central Government notifications. For present compliance, always read the Companies Act, 2013 in its current consolidated form together with subsequent amendments, rules and notifications.
Overview of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017
The Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 was enacted to further amend the Companies Act, 2013. The Act received the assent of the President on 3 January 2018 and was published as Act No. 1 of 2018.
The amendments were broadly intended to simplify implementation of the Companies Act, reduce certain compliance difficulties, improve ease of doing business, harmonise company-law provisions with accounting and securities regulation, and correct omissions or inconsistencies in the principal Act.
- Address difficulties arising from stringent or impractical compliance requirements.
- Facilitate ease of doing business while retaining regulatory safeguards.
- Improve consistency with applicable accounting standards and securities regulation.
- Clarify definitions, filing obligations, governance provisions and procedural requirements.
- Correct omissions, anomalies and inconsistencies in the Companies Act, 2013.
Section-wise Amendments
The following internal pages reproduce and explain the relevant groups of provisions amended by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017:
- Section 1, 2, 3A, 4, 7 of Companies Act 2017
- Section 12, 21, 26, 35, 42 of Companies Act
- Section 47, 53, 54, 62, 73, 74
- Section 76a, 77, 78, 82, 89, 90
- Section 92, 94, 96, 100, 101, 110
- Section 121, 123, 129, 130, 132, 134
- Section 135, 136, 137, 140, 141, 143
- Section 147, 148, 149, 152, 153, 157
- Section 160, 161, 164, 165, 167, 168
- Section 173, 177, 178, 180, 184, 185
- Section 186, 188, 196, 197, 198, 200
- Section 201, 216, 223, 236, 247, 366
- Section 374, 379, 384, 391, 403, 406
- Section 409, 410, 411, 412, 435, 438
- Section 439, 440, 441, 446A, B, 447, 458
Commencement of the 2017 Amendment
Section 1(2) of the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2017 provides that the Act comes into force on dates appointed by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions. Accordingly, the amendments were commenced in stages through notifications issued during 2018.
How to Use This Amendment Today
This page is best used as a historical and section-wise reference to the 2017 amending legislation. Because the Companies Act, 2013 has been amended further after 2017, users should verify the current wording of the relevant provision in the consolidated Companies Act, 2013 and applicable rules before relying on a particular amendment for compliance, litigation or advisory work.