Decriminalization is a step towards eliminating provisions consisting of offences. This process is not new to India; decriminalization was started back in 1991 with liberalization of export and Import Regulations, this brought down many criminal offences. After years of torture by the stringent act Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was struck down and another act called Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 was brought to action. The main motive behind decriminalization has been promoting ease of doing business and now in the Companies Act Amendment, 2019(CAA) the ministry of corporate affairs has done eliminated 16 compoundable offences. The ministry has also introduced a Companies Amendment Bill (CAB) in the Loksabha which suggests further elimination of approximately 54 offences. Although the Bill hasn’t got assent of the parliament but few steps have been initiated by the ministry towards these amendments. Hence it becomes important for us to understand the positive and negative aspects of these amendments.

In this paper the amendments regarding Decriminalization of corporate offences will be discussed at length.

 Download Full Paper