It’s two-and-a-half years since the Securities and Exchange Board of India first announced that listed companies need to have at least one woman director on their boards but 29 companies listed on the NSE still do not have even one woman director on their boards, according to data provided by Prime Database.
The rule was first announced by SEBI in February 2014 with an initial deadline of October 1 the same year but was later extended by six months (from April 1, 2015). According to SEBI guidelines, the listed companies complying on or after October 1, 2015, would have to pay ₹1.42 lakh, plus ₹5,000 a day as fine till the date of compliance.
Of the total 29 companies, there is a string of public sector entities such as Rural Electrification Corporation, PFC, ONGC, MMTC, BPCL and GAIL figuring in the list.
However, the list becomes bulgy if one considers the case wherein there was a woman director on the board of a particular company but for some reason she resigned.
There are total 68 such companies, including the above 29 companies.
“The rest 39 companies were compliant as on March 2015,” said Pranav Haldea, MD, Prime Database.
According to the Companies Act, if there is any intermittent vacancy of an independent director, then the company’s board of directors shall fill the same within three months from the date of such vacancy or not later than the immediate next board meeting, whichever is later.