The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has clarified that only a duly approved agency approved by it will have to be appointed for providing and supervising electronic platform for electronic voting to have a secured electronic platform for capturing accurate voting processes. Accordingly, the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) and the Central Depository Services (India) Limited are being approved by the MCA subject to the condition that they obtain a certificate from the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate (STQC), Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT, Govt. of India, New Delhi.
The clarification is a sequel to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs recent ‘Green Initiative in the Corporate Governance that allows paperless compliances by the companies after considering sections 2, 4, 5 and 81 0f the Information Technology Act, 2000 for legal validity of compliances under Companies Act, 1956 through electronic mode.
It may be noted that Section 192A of the Companies Act, 1956 read with the Companies (Passing of the Resolution by Postal Balot) Rules, 2001 already recognises voting by electronic mode for postal ballot.
