Maintenance Of Branch Offices

As per Section 37(1) of the Act, where a Company Secretary in Practice or a firm of such Company Secretaries has more than one office in India, each one of such offices must be in the separate charge of a member of the Institute. The Council is, however, empowered to exempt in suitable cases any Company Secretary in Practice or firm of such company secretaries from the operation of this sub-section.

Applications for opening of Branch Office without a member in the separate charge at places where there are few or no Company Secretaries in Practice are decided by the Council on the merits of each case subject to the following general conditions:
  1. The branch office shall be an independent office and not in the office of some other professional.
  2. One of the partners of the firm shall attend the branch office atleast 100 days in a financial year. However, if a candidate who has passed Intermediate examination of the Institute and also completed Management/Apprenticeship Training or has passed the Final Examination of the Institute is posted at the said branch office, one of the partners of the firm shall attend the branch office atleast 60 days in the financial year.
  3. The approval shall be valid for a period of two years within which a member must be appointed in the separate charge of the branch office.
Section 37(2) requires every Company Secretary in Practice or firm of such Company Secretaries maintaining more than one office to send to the Council a list of offices and the persons in charge thereof and also to intimate any change therein. Regulation 163 of the Company Secretaries Regulations, 1982, requires the changes to be intimated to the Council within one month of such change(s).