The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, in its 200th Council meeting held on March 18, 2011 at New Delhi amended the Guidelines for Compulsory Attendance of Professional Development Programmes by the Members as follows:
Next block of three years: April 01, 2011 to March 31, 2014
- Min. number of Programme Credit Hours (PCH) to be acquired by Members in Practice: 15 PCH in each year or 50 PCH in a block of three years w.e.f April 01, 2011
- Min. number of PCH to be acquired by Members in Employment (i.e. members in whose name Form 32 has been filed to work as Company Secretary under the provisions of Sec. 383A of the Companies Act, 1956): 10 PCH in each year or 35 PCH in a block of three years w.e.f April 01, 2011
- Min. number of PCH to be acquired by Members above the age of 60 years: Presently the members of the age of 65 years are not required to obtain PCH. This age limit stands reduced to 60 years and the members above the age of 60 years shall be required to obtain 50% of the PCH required to be obtained by the members below 60 years w.e.f April 01, 2011.
- Members failing to obtain the mandatory PCH upto March 31, 2011: Provided with a shortfall upto 10 PCH and required to compensate by obtaining atleast 5 additional PCH on pro rata basis in the first year of the next block of three years commencing from April 01, 2011.
- Members who have not obtained any PCH during the block ending on March 31, 2011: Members seeking renewal of CoP to provide an explanation for non compliance with the Guidelines to be decided on case to case basis.
Note: It may be noted that Company Secretaries in Employment whose Form 32 has not been filed i.e. they are either CFOs or Head Legal etc. have not been covered by this rule…so enjoy till the time the Institute realises this.
On the Lighter side:
Members in Employment may kindly forward this news to their bosses to bargain time from the “official hours” to attend these seminars.
