MCA's Introduction of E-Adjudication Platform

On 5 August 2024, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has notified amendments to the Companies (Adjudication of Penalties) Rules, 2014 (Adjudication Rules) by way of the Companies (Adjudication of Penalties) Amendment Rules, 2024 (Amendment) which will come in force from 16 September 2024.

Key Features of the Amendment:

Comment

Under the present Adjudication Rules, the adjudicating officer would issue a notice to the concerned person before commencing proceedings, including hearings, filing of representations and passing of orders, all of which are conducted in a physical mode. Currently, while the Adjudication Rules permit filing of replies to notice and payment of penalty on the MCA portal in electronic mode, a centralised system equipped for all steps of the proceedings is not present. With the introduction of the Amendment, these processes, including hearings, will be conducted in electronic mode on the e-adjudication platform.

The Amendment also provides a format of ‘Form ADJ’ for filing an appeal against the adjudication order.  While this form is available as part of the Adjudication Rules for filing of appeal in physical form, it is now made available for filing of appeals in electronic mode. The Amendment does not prescribe any format for initiation of adjudication proceedings.

As a positive measure, the e-adjudication platform will provide an online mode of conducting the proceedings. The introduction of this platform follows the Digital India initiative by providing the users the requisite infrastructure for online adjudication.

• Nikhilesh Panchal (Partner); Niyanta Munyal (Principal Associate) & Dnyaneshwari Chincholikar (Associate)

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