Requisites of a Valid Meeting Notice - Company Meetings, Company Law | Company Law - B Com PDF Download

Requisites of a Valid Meeting

A meeting to be in order must fulfil certain requirements.

1. Proper Authority

The Board of Directors is the proper authority to convene a general meeting of a company and for this purpose the board should pass a resolution at a duly convened meeting of the board. However, if the board fails to call a general meeting of the company, the members or the Central Government or the Central Government may call such a meeting. Some defects in appointment or qualification of the directors present at the meeting of the board will not necessarily be fatal to the validity of the resolution passed at the meeting provided the board has acted bonafide.

2. Notice of Meetings (Sec. 171)

A proper notice of the meetings must be given to the members of the company. The notice must be given 21 days before the date of the meeting. The period of 21 days excludes the day of service of the notice and also the day on which the meeting is to be held.

The length of the notice may be waived :

(a) in the case of an annual general meeting by the consent of all members;

(b) in the case of any other meeting by the consent of the holders of not less than 95% of the paid-up share capital or the total voting power where the company has no share capital.

Notice to whom (Sec. 172)

The notice is required to be given to

(a) all the members of the company who are entitled to vote on the matters which are proposed to be dealt with at the meeting ;

(b) all the persons who are entitled to a share in consequences of the death and insolvency of a member ;

(c) the auditor or auditors of the company. Deliberate omission to give notice of the meeting to members or to a single member will make the meeting invalid, but an accidental omission to give notice to or the non-receipt of notice by any member will not invalidate the proceedings at the meeting [Sec. 172 (3)]

Contents of Notice

Every notice of a meeting is required to specify the place and the day and hours of the meeting and must contain a statement of the business to be transacted at the meeting. If the time of holding meeting and other essential particulars are not specified in the notice, the meeting will be invalid and all resolutions passed at the meeting will be of no effect. The notice of general meeting must contain a statement of the business to be transacted at the general meeting of the company. The business to be transacted at a meeting may be general business or special business. Section 173 provides (a) in the case of an annual general meeting, all business to be transacted at the meeting will be deemed special except the business relating to the consideration of accounts, Balance Sheet and reports of the Board of Directors and auditors, the declaration of dividends, the appointment of directors in the place of those retiring and the appointment of and the fixing of the remuneration of the auditors and (b) in the case of any other meeting, all business will be deemed special. If any special business is to be transacted at an annual general meeting a statement to that effect must be annexed to the notice of the meeting. The statement must set out all material facts concerning each item of business including in particular the nature of the concern or interest therein of every director or other managerial personnel. Thus every notice calling a meeting is required to specify the business to be transacted at the meeting.

A notice of meeting must give a sufficiently full and frank disclosure to the members of the fact upon which they are asked to vote otherwise the resolution passed at the meeting will be invalid.

In Kaye v. Croydon Tramways Co., there was a provisional agreement between two companies for the sale of the undertaking of the one company to the other. Under the agreement the buying company agreed to pay, in addition to the sum payable to the selling company, certain amount to the directors of the selling company as compensation for the loss of office. The notice calling the meeting of the shareholders to consider the agreement for sale of the undertaking did not disclose that there was a provision in the agreement for the payment of compensation to the directors. The Court held that the notice could not make the full and fair disclosure of all the material facts to the considered and voted upon at the meeting and therefore the resolutions passed at the meting were invalid and ineffective.

3. Quorum

Quorum means the minimum number of members that must be present at the meeting. The quorum is generally fixed by the company's article. Unless the articles provide for a large number, five members personally present in the case of a public company (other than a public company which has become such by virtue of Section 43-A) and two members personally present in the case of any other company will be the quorum for a meeting of the company. If within half an hour from the time appointed for holding a meeting of the company, a quorum is not present, the meeting will stand dissolved if it was called upon the requisition of members but in any other case it stands adjourned to the same day in the next week, at the same time and place or to such other day as the Board may determine. If at a adjourn meeting also the quorum is not present within half an hour from time appointed for holding the meeting the members present sufficient will be quorum [Section 174(5)].

Section 174 clearly indicate that the meeting must be attended by more than one member so as to constitute it as a meeting. But a few exceptions to this general rule may also be noted :

(a) Under Section 167, the Central Government may, on the application of any member of the company, call a general meeting of the company and may direct that even one member of the company present in person or by proxy shall be deemed to constitute a meeting.

(b) Under Section 186, the Central Government may call a meeting of the company other than an annual general meeting and may give direction that even one member of the company present in person or by proxy shall be deemed to constitute a meeting.

(c) In East v. Bennet Bros. Ltd., one shareholder held all these preference shares in the company. A meeting of preference shareholders attended by him only was held to be a valid meeting.

4. Chairman of meeting

Before a meeting of a company can start its business, it is required to have a Chairman. It is the Chairman who is to preside at the meeting of the company. He is to conduct the meeting and to maintain the order. It is the Chairman who is to put up the resolution, count the votes and declare the result. Usually the articles provide for the appointment of a Chairman but if there is no provision in the articles to this effect, the members present in the meeting shall elect one of themselves to be the Chairman of such meeting on a show of hands [Section 175(1)]. If a poll is demanded on the election of the Chairman, it shall be taken forthwith [Section 175(2)] and in such a case the Chairman elected on the show of hands will exercise all the powers of the Chairman. If some other person is elected Chairman as a result of the poll, he will be the Chairman for the rest of the meeting [Section 175(3)]. He can adjourn the meeting in the event of disorder but he should do so only as a last resort, if his attempts to restore order have failed.

A Chairman is not entitled to close the meeting prematurely and if he does so, a new Chairman may be elected and the meeting of the company may be continued. However, it is to be noted that where a meeting is called but it is not held due to pandemonium and confusion and a note to this effect is made in the minute book by the Chairman, the shareholders cannot elect a new Chairman because in such a case no meeting has actually been commenced and consequently no question of dissolving the meeting permanently by the Chairman arises.

Duties of the Chairman

(a) He must take care that the minority is not oppressed in any way.

(b) He must give the members who are present a reasonable opportunity to discuss any proposed resolution and it must be ensured that all the views are adequately aired. But at the expiry of a reasonable time, if he thinks fit, he should stop the discussion on any resolution.

(c) He must see that the meting is properly convened and constituted i.e. proper notice was given to every person entitled to attend the meeting and his own appointment is in order. It is the Chairman who is to see whether a quorum is present before proceeding with the business.

(d) The Chairman must conduct the proceedings in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the companies Articles of Association or Table A or in the absence thereof, the common law relating to the meetings.

(e) He should adjourn the meeting when it is impossible, by reason of disorder or other like cause, to conduct the meeting and complete its business. He must not use this power in a malafide manner.

(f) He must take care that the opinion of the meeting is properly ascertained with regard to the questions before it. He must do so by putting the resolution in a proper form before the members and then declaring the result.

(g) He must keep order in the meeting. He must decide all questions which arise at the meeting and which require decision at the time. (h) He should exercise his casting vote, if any, provided by the articles for the benefit of the company.

(i) The minutes of the meeting should be properly recorded and signed by the chairman.

5. Minutes of the meeting :

Every company must keep a record of all proceedings of every general meeting and of all proceedings of every meeting of its Board of Directors and of every committee of the board.

These records are known as minutes and the books in which these records are written are called 'minute books'.

Rules of Keeping Minutes (Sec. 193-196)

(a) Within 30 days of every such meeting, entries of the proceedings must be made in the books kept for that purpose. [Sec. 193 (1-A)]

(b) Each page of minutes book which records proceedings of a board meeting must be initialled or signed by the Chairman of the same meeting or the next succeeding meeting. In the case of minutes of proceedings of a general meeting, each page of the minute book must be initialled or signed by the Chairman of the same meeting.

(c) The minutes of each meeting must contain a fair and correct summary of the proceedings at the meeting.

(d) All the appointments of officers made at any of the meetings aforesaid must be included in the minutes. In the case of a meeting of the Board of Directors or of a committee of the board, the minutes must contain the names of the directors present at the meeting and the names of the directors dissenting from or not concurring in the resolution passed at the meeting [Sec. 193 (4)].

(e) The Chairman may exclude from the minutes, matters which are defamatory of any person, irrelevant or immaterial to the proceedings or which are detrimental to the interests of the company. Minutes of meetings kept in accordance with the above provisions are evidence of the proceedings recorded therein.

(f) The minutes books must be kept (i) at the registered office of the company; and (ii) be open during business hours to the inspection of any member without charge subject to reasonable restrictions but at least two hours each day must be allowed for inspection.

Penalty

If default is made in complying with the provision of Section 193 in respect of any meeting, the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs. 50.