You are a practicing Company Secretary named AAA and has been approached by Secretarial Department of LMN Ltd. (a listed company) seeking your opinion on the appointment of following person as Independent Director on the

Mr. Reggie, already Director in 19 companies of which 9 are Public Listed companies. No, Mr. Reggie cannot be appointed as an independent director, although as per Section 165 of Companies Act, 2013, a person, shall not hold office as a director, including any alternate directorship, in more than 20 companies. The maximum number of public companies in which a person can be appointed as a director shall not exceed 10. However as per Regulation 25 of SEBI (LODR) Regulation, 2015, a person shall serve as an independent director in not more than seven listed entities: Provided that any person who is serving as a whole time director in any listed entity, then he shall be serving as an independent director in not more than three listed entities.