Comment on the following: "Every company is mandated to obtain annual secretarial audit report and annual secretarial compliance report from its statutory auditor."

According to Section 204(1) of Companies Act, 2013 (the Act), read with Rule 9 of Companies (Appointment and Remuneration of Managerial Personnel) Rules, 2014, the following companies are required to annex with its Board's Report under section 134 of the Act, a Secretarial Audit Report given by a company secretary in practice in Form MR-3: Every listed company; or Every public company with a paid-up equity share capital of ₹50 crore or more Every public company with a turnover of ₹250 crore or more or Every company having outstanding loan from banks or public financial institutions of ₹100 crore or more. According to Regulation 24A of SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 (LODR), every listed entity and its material unlisted subsidiary(ies) incorporated in India shall undertake secretarial audit and shall annex a secretarial audit report given by a company secretary in practice in Form MR-3 along with the annual report of the listed entity as per Schedule V of LODR. According to Regulation 24A of LODR, every listed company shall also submit secretarial compliance report to the stock exchanges within 60 days from end of financial year. The annual secretarial compliance report, apart from the coverage on compliance of laws applicable to the listed company, also requires the practicing company secretary to report on compliance of all applicable SEBI regulations, circulars and guidelines to the stock exchanges. Thus, the given statement that every Company is mandated to obtain annual secretarial audit report and annual secretarial compliance report is not correct. The statutory auditor of the company is a practicing-chartered accountant. Under Section 143 of the Companies Act, 2013, the statutory auditor is required to audit the financial accounts of the company and give his opinion whether the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company. The statutory auditor has no role in certifying the annual secretarial audit report or annual secretarial compliance report. Thus, the second part of the statement is also incorrect. Annual secretarial audit report is different from annual secretarial compliance report. Both Annual secretarial audit report and Annual secretarial compliance reports are given by a practicing company secretary and not by the statutory auditor. Thus, the second part of the statement is also incorrect.