"We hope to come with a scheme in the next one month or so," Prem Chand Gupta, Company Affairs Minister said, after receiving an expert group report on streamlining the prosecution mechanism under the existing Companies Act.
The expert group, which was constituted in May this year and headed by noted lawyer O P Vaish, agreed with the recommendations of the JJ Irani committee that an in-house structure should be created within the ministry for dealing with cases that were not punishable with imprisonment.
"Almost 50 per cent of more than six lakh companies do not comply with Companies Act provisions and we feel that except in serious cases where interest of investors is hurt, others can be handled within the ministry itself by the Registrar of Companies," Vaish said, after submitting his report.
As many as 45,000 cases are currently pending in various trial courts, some from as long back as 1977, and in some cases the companies exist no more while in others the nature of offence was very minor, he said, pointing out that there was a requirement to deal with this immediately.
Vaish suggested that cases against 16,000 such companies, dubbed as 'garbage' in his report as they seemed to be non-existent now, be withdrawn while a new simple settlement scheme for those held in violation be introduced.
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