March 23, 2026
Lok Sabha MP Sougata Ray’s opposing the introduction of The Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026
Hon. Speaker Sir, under Rule 72(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha, I beg to oppose the introduction of the Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill 2026. Mr. Manish Tewari has already enumerated his objections to the Bill. My main objection to this Bill is that it seeks to dilute the corporate social responsibility. It talks about providing further relaxations for small companies by providing exemptions from mandatory CSR requirements and then it also mentions relaxations in CSR requirements through division of eligibility thresholds. Sir, you may know that when the Companies Act was placed in a new form in 2013 and after that four or five amendments were made, this was one of the most welcome measures, that is, corporate social responsibility, where companies would spend two per cent of their profit for social purposes. This Bill seeks to dilute that provision altogether. The other thing the Government is doing is strange. When Mr. Arun Jaitley was the Finance Minister, he used to add a clause of imprisonment to every violation of Companies Act. Now the Government is working in the reverse direction. It says that it is doing ‘ease of business’; that is why it wants to decriminalize various procedural defaults under the Companies Act and LLP Act by replacing criminal provisions with civil penalties. I would like to know from the hon. Minister what her approach is. Do they want to decriminalize all corporate offences or they want to make them strict? In this case, violations will be washed over, people will pay fine and get rid of this. I do not think that there is a need for such a voluminous Bill to amend the corporate class. Many other things that Mr. Manish Tewari has mentioned, like strengthening the National Financial Reporting Authority, are inconsequential. Basically, it was not necessary to bring this Bill. I do not know why this has been brought and why corporate social responsibility is being diluted, why offences are being decriminalized.
