What is Section 29 of the Companies Act 2013?

Answer 1

Under Indian law, shares in an unlisted firm can be kept in either physical form (as evidenced by letters of allotment/share certificates issued against them) or dematerialized form (as evidenced by opening a “Demat account” with a depository participant).

Sections 29 (1) and 29 (IA) of the Companies Act, 2013 address the issue of securities in Demat form by unlisted public companies, promoters by unlisted public companies, and the demat of all existing securities of Key Managerial Personnel or KMP, as well as actions, were taken by holders of unlisted company securities, received through a public company.

Key Changes- Public firms or classes of public corporations must issue their securities in dematerialized form as prescribed by the Central Government under Section 29 of the Act. The proposed modification removes the phrase “public” from section 29 (1)(b), making this section applies to all “other classes or classes of organizations as the central government may deem applicable.”

In addition, a new section 29 (1A) has been inserted, which states that “the securities will be kept or transferred in dematerialized form only in the specified way as stipulated in The Depository Act, 1996 in the event of such class or classes of unlisted firms.

As a result, non-listed firms, whether public or private, will be forced to transfer those shares to be dematerialized in the form of government-determined shares and will be subject to the terms of the Depository Act of 1996 and its restrictions. However, the Central Government has yet to announce which of the Act’s classes of corporations would be affected by this revision and the laws that will apply to them.