Meeting Requirements of Companies as per Indian Companies Act, 1956

A company once formed should conduct different kinds of meetings as per the provisions of Indian Companies Act, 1956. There are three kinds of General meetings of Members of a company. They are:

Statutory Meeting
Annual General Meeting
Extraordinary General Meeting

1. Statutory Meeting - Section 165 of Indian Companies Act, 1956
As per Section 165 of the Indian Companies Act, 1956 every company limited by shares, and every company limited by guarantee and having a share capital must hold its statutory meeting within a period of not less than one month and not more than six months from the date at which the company is entitled to commence its business. This is the first General Meeting of the shareholders of a Public Limited company held after its incorporation.

Default in holding the statutory meeting
In case of default in complying the provisions of holding statutory meeting, every director or other officer of the company who is guilty of the default shall be punished with fine which may extend to Five Thousand Rupees. Further in case of default in holding the statutory meeting or filing statutory report, the court may pass order for winding up of the company under clause (b) of Section 433 of the Act. However the court instead of passing the winding up orders, may direct that the report be delivered or the meeting be held.

2. Annual General Meeting
Every Company must hold in each year a General meeting of the shareholders as its Annual General Meeting in addition to any other meeting in that year. The main object of the Annual General Meeting is to place before the shareholders, the result of the years working.
The First Annual General Meeting of the company can be held within a period of eighteen months from the date of its incorporation. Section 166(2) of Indian Companies Act, 1956 lays down the requirements for conduct of the Annual General Meeting.

Default in holding the Annual General Meeting (Section 167 and 168 of Indian Companies Act, 1956)
In case of default in holding the Annual General Meeting of the Company, the Company Law Board may, on an application by any member of the company, call or direct the calling of a General Meeting of the Company.

Further, if the company fails to call the Annual General Meeting as per the provisions of Section 166 of the Act, or pursuance of the order of the Central Government the company, and every officer of the company in default shall be punishable with fine which may extended to fifty thousand rupees. In case of continuing default, they are punished with further fine which may extend to two thousand rupees for every day after the first during which the default continues.

3. Extra Ordinary General Meeting
All General Meeting other than Annual General Meeting and statutory meeting are called 'Extra ordinary General meeting'. The EGM is for transacting some special or urgent business which cannot be postponed till the next AGM.

Boards failure to call meeting on Requisition
The Board of Directors must proceed to call a meeting within twenty one days from the date of the deposit of a valid requisition and the meeting must be held within forty-five days from that date. If the board of directors fails to do so, the meeting may be called by any of the following:

(a) By Requisitionists themselves,

(b) In case of a company having a share capital, by such of the requisitionists as represent either a majority in value of the paid up capital held by all of them or at least one-tenth of the paid up capital of the company.

(c) In the case of a company not having share capital by such of the requisitionists who represent at least one-tenth of the total voting power of all members of the company.