“Compliance of secretarial standards is good for governance.” Explain.

The ultimate goal of the Secretarial Standards is to promote good corporate practices leading to better corporate governance. The Standards are only for good secretarial practices and desirable corporate governance with a view to ensuring shareholders democracy and utmost transparency, integrity and fair play, going beyond the minimum requirements of law. The adoption of the Secretarial Standards by the corporate sector will, over the years have a substantial impact on the improvement of quality of secretarial practices being followed by companies, making them comparable with the best practices in the world. By following the Secretarial Standards in true letter and spirit, companies will be able to ensure adoption of uniform, consistent and best secretarial practices in the corporate sector. Such uniformity of best practices, consistently applied, will result in furthering the shareholders democracy by laying down principles for better corporate disclosures thus adding value to the general endevour to strive for good governance. The Companies Act, 2013 has given recognition vide sub section 10 of section 118 for observation with respect to general meetings and Board of Directors Meeting. (SS-1 & SS-2). It is beginning of new era where non financial standards have been given importance and statutory recognition beside Financial Standards. It clearly indicates that law makers recognise the importance of Secretarial Standards in achieving the better practices leading to better governance.