In the light of the prevailing world health crisis due to COVID-19, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) decided to relax the requirements on holding board meetings till June 30, 2020. The ministry has issued a notification stating that any board meetings which require the physical presence of directors shall be conducted over video conferencing.
The current company rules do not allow certain affairs to be dealt with in a meeting through video conferencing or other audio-visual means. This includes the approval of the prospectus, annual financial statements, board’s report, matters relating to amalgamation, merger, demerger, acquisition, and takeover and the audit committee meetings for consideration of accounts. This new relaxation allows the directors to attend the meetings via audiovisual means even for the approval of financial statements and the board’s report.
For any other issues, the board meetings are permitted through video conferencing. A director attending a meeting through video conferencing is to be counted for the purpose of quorum. Meetings in this quarter are important as they ratify interim dividends announced by over two dozen companies.
These dividends were announced to avoid higher Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) levied onto promoters post the new provisions in the budget in the year 2020. To ensure safeguards, the companies would have to ensure adequate documentation of meetings held through video conferencing.
 decided to relax the requirements on holding board meetings till June 30, 2020 due to COVID-19.){kind=link}