NEW DELHI: In a bid to promote ease of doing business and decriminalisation of compoundable offences under the Companies Act, 2013, the central government on Friday approved the withdrawal of 7,338 prosecutions under its Special Arrears Clearance Drive-II, which have remained pending before various courts.
“This would be a significant decrease of 21.86% in the pending prosecutions being pursued by the central government. The government’s “Action Plan for Special Arrears Clearance Drives” for reducing the number of pending litigations had previously resulted in the withdrawal of 14,247 prosecutions during the Special Drive-I in the year 2017,” the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) said in a statement.
MCA had constituted a panel to undertake a thorough review of pending litigations. Long pending prosecutions for compoundable offences have been identified for withdrawal. “Prosecutions related to serious non-compoundable offences like cheating, fraud, acceptance of deposits, pending charges, etc. have not been considered for withdrawal.
This step will unclog the courts and foster growth of the corporate sector while maintaining a healthy corporate governance framework,” the government said. The cases being withdrawn under Special Drive-II are corollary to the amendment brought out by the government vide the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2020, for the decriminalisation of offences under the Companies Act, 2013 to facilitate the smooth functioning of businesses as well as minimise lengthy litigations before courts.