Annual General Meeting for the FY 20-21 Extended by Two Months due to Covid

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs with an order dated 23 September 2021 has extended the deadline for holding Annual General Meetings (AGMs) of companies by two months from the due date within which the companies are required to conduct the Annual General Meeting for the financial year 2020-21. The financial year 2020-21 just ended on 31 March 2021.

As per the first provision of section 96(1) of the Companies Act, 2013, a company shall, apart from any other meeting or even the first AGM, hold a general meeting within a period.

of six months from the date of the end of the financial year. It needs to be noted that under any special circumstances, this period of six months can be extended by the Registrar for a further period.

The MCA took this decision to extend the timeline to hold the AGM by two months beyond the due date, in view of the difficulties being faced by the stakeholders in conducting the AGM due to the second wave of COVID-19 lockdown, etc. This extension of the said time limit has given relaxation in the finalization of the books of accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 2021.

MCA with circular dated 13 January 2021 had earlier permitted those companies whose AGMs were to be held in the year 2020, or become due in 2021 to hold their AGM on or before December 31, 2021, through Video Conferencing (VC) or Other Audio-Visual Means (OAVM) as per the requirements provided in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the circular dated 05 May 2021.

With the latest circular, companies can now conduct AGM through VC or OAVM till 30th November 2021. Further, the MCA also clarified that the extension granted under this order shall also include applications in Form GNL-1 for extension of AGM for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, which are yet to be approved; which were rejected; and where the extension was granted for a period of less than 2 months.

However, this extension will not cover applications filed in Form GNL-1 for extension of AGM for the financial year ended 31st March 2021, where the extension for a period exceeding 2 months was granted.

Orders, as issued by the ROCs of various states, are available at the link-
https://www.mca.gov.in/content/mca/global/en/data-and-reports/rd-roc-info/extension-
agm.html

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