The Magic Bullet

The Magic Bullet by Harry Stein is a medical thriller on the likes of Robin Cook books The Coma. Daniel Logan is an up and coming medical scientist who wants to work in frontier research in cancer cure. He is accepted into the prestigious American Cancer Foundation, and stumbles upon a magic cure for cancer. But the machinations and deviousness of his seniors at the ACF puts paid to his efforts. How he extricates himself and his Italian girlfriend forms the rest of the narrative. I would sya a pulsating throbbing medical thriller. Goodreads 5/5

Class Action Suits

Section 245 of the companies act, 2013 is a new addition in the 2013 Act, which provides for a class action suit to be filed by such number of member(s)/ depositor(s) against the company. Vast powers have been given in the section against the company. The application under this section has to be made to the National company law tribunal (NCLT). But the Rules under this section which is in the National Company Law Tribunal Rules did not hitherto specify how many members/ depositors are required in order to file an application.

By an amendment to the NCLT Rules, the MCA has sorted that matter out.

So the class action suit can be brought by at least 5% of the total number of members in a company or 100 members, whichever is less.

Alternatively it can be bought by member or members holding not less than 5% of the issued share capital of the company in case of unlisted company and 2% in case of listed company.


In case of depositors, it is

5% of the total number of depositors or 100 depositors whichever is less OR

depositor or depositors to whom the company owes 5% of the total deposits of the company.

The copy of the notification can be found at the MCA site.

Strike off Rules

MCA has vide its notification dated 8th May, 2019 made some amendments to the rules governing strike off of companies. This is the Companies (Removal of Names of Companies from Register), Rules, 2016.

Well, first and foremost, they have doubled the fees for making an application for strike off from Rs.5000/- to Rs.10,000/-.

Secondly, they have clarified that all pending annual e-forms have to be filed by the company before making an application for strike off in form STK-2. Hitherto, this was not required and different ROCs interpreted it differently. This brings in uniformity. But MCA should have provided for closure of the companies without having to file the baggage annual e-forms. It will lead to huge cost to the company to file all delayed annual e-forms because the late fees is now Rs.100 per day from 1st July, 2018 onwards. It is not ease of doing business.

Thirdly if the company intends to file an STK-2 application after the MCA has initiated steps to close down the company, then also the company has to file all pending and overdue annual e-forms to make it upto date.

However, once the MCA has issued a notice to the company in form STK-7 after initiating closure action against the company as per above, then the company cannot file the form STK-2. Meaning once the action gets initiated at the MCA end, then the company cannot subvert it by filing a STK-2 application.

The accounts of the company which has to be attached to the form STK-2 is provided in form STK-8.

The copy of the notification is available at the MCA site.