Whenever we talk about the profession Company Secretary, people start asking what are the opportunities? The reality is that people want opportunities in money terms or position terms but on responsibility or utility terms.
If you just look on money, there may be better things a person can do than becoming Company Secretary, but that may land up the person in some other places.
Company Secretary course is not just another academic course offered by universities, this is top class professional qualification offered by Institute of Company Secretaries of India, which is established under an Act of Indian Parliament.
Role of Company Secretary is to make sure to execute and implement the decisions taken by the Board of Directors and advice the management about the different legal compliances. Company secretary is the professional who will assist the management of the company to conduct the affairs properly.
Company Secretaries guide to the directors about their duties.
Company Secretaries ensure compliance with corporate governance.
Company Secretaries ensure the company is complying with secretarial standards.
Helps the company to conduct different types of meetings, recording minutes.
Advice the company with regard to related party transactions and the danger of insider trading.
Ensure the company is in compliance with various national and international laws.
Represent the company in legal forums and act as one point contact for all legal matters.
Company secretary is a Key Managerial Persons as per the provisions of section 203 of Companies Act and the appointment is mandatory.
Section 204 of the Act says that only a Company Secretary is authorised perform secretarial audit of a listed company.
Section 92 says that the annual returns of a listed company need to be signed by a company secretary.
Rules 8, Rule 8A of Companies ( Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial personnel) Rules, 2014 sys that all listed companies need to appoint a company secretary, every public company having 10 crore of more paid up share capital also need to appoint a company and every other company having paid up share capital of 5 crore or more also need to appoint a company secretary.
As the availability of Company Secretaries are less comparing to other professions, opportunities for practice as a Company Secretary is also there.
Now a days we are hearing failures of big corporates, financial institutions etc which is resulting in the erosion of public wealth, capital and also affects the economy negatively. One of the main reason for such a failure is not following the legal compliance seriously with regards to funding, filing, disclosures, appointment of personnel etc. Company Secretary is the professional who can save a company from imminent failure by providing timely advices.
so we can conclude that Company Secretary is not just an officer who is doing 9 to 5 job but he is a responsible officer of the company whose service can also decide efficient running of an organisation and its success.