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Market regulator SEBI has revised its Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations to introduce detailed norms governing the appointment, re-appointment, and removal of secretarial auditors in listed entities.
Only a peer reviewed company secretary or firm of Company Secretary (ies) in practice can undertake secretarial audit of a listed entity and its material unlisted subsidiaries incorporated in India, SEBI has now stipulated.
The latest changes and resultant structural clarity is expected to redefine the position of Secretarial Auditor in the corporate landscape, say corporate observers.
With this SEBI move, the entire process of obtaining shareholders’ nod for appointment as Secretarial Auditor at an annual general meeting will be on a par with statutory financial auditors, they noted.
The latest norms introduced by the market regulator flow from the recommendations of the SEBI appointed S K Mohanty-led committee for facilitating ease of doing business for listed and to-be-listed companies in India.
Currently, there are no provisions prescribed either in the LODR Regulations or in the Companies Act 2013 specifying criteria for appointment or reappointment or removal for secretarial auditors of a listed entity.
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