- There are two major provisions related to e-voting facility and video conferencing that the companies registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) are required to be complied with. These are as follows-
- All the companies are required to provide the e-voting facility under the Companies Act, 2013 either it is listed companies or unlisted public companies or public limited company or Private Limited Company having shareholders more than 1000 or any other company that has opted for the e-voting facility is available for-
- Only those members, who are present through video conferencing or other facilities in the meeting but have not cast their votes on the resolution under consideration through the remote e-voting and are otherwise not barred from casting votes, shall be allowed to vote through the e-voting facility system or by showing their hands during the meeting.
- The chairman for the meeting is appointed by any one of the following ways unless and until the company’s article requires any specific person to be appointed as the chairman for the meeting-
- In case there are less than 50 members present in the meeting, the chairman is to be appointed as per Section 104 of the Companies Act.
- In other cases, the chairman of the meeting is to be appointed through a polling system conducted with the e-voting facility during the whole meeting.
- The chairman who is already present in the meeting must ensure that the e-voting facility is available during the meeting for proper conduction of the polling depending on the number of members present in the meeting. The meeting is to be conducted in the following manner as prescribed in the act-
- In case the total present members at the meeting are less than 50, the voting must be conducted through either the e-voting facility or raising hands. In case a poll is conducted as per Section 109 of the Act, then it is mandatory to conduct the meeting through the e-voting system.
- In all other cases, it is mandatory to conduct voting through the e-voting system.
- Some companies may not be required to provide e-voting facility as per the Act in certain situations. These are as follows-
- The chairman of the meeting is appointed by anyone of the following ways unless and until the company’s article requires any specific person to be appointed as the chairman of the meeting.
- In case there are less than 50 members present in the meeting, the chairman is to be appointed as per Section 104 of the Companies Act.
- In all other cases, the chairman is to be appointed through a poll conducted as per the sub-paragraphs succeeding.
- The company is required to provide a designated e-mail address to all the members while sending the meeting notice, to intimate all the members to be present at the meeting for casting their vote through e-voting facility.
- The privacy issues and confidentiality of the password of the designated e-mail address is to be strictly maintained by the company.
