Prime Minister Modi declared a nation-wide lockdown on March 25, 2020. Since then, businesses all over the country are scrambling around to reset their processes and make ends meet. Many others might be forced to go back to the drawing board.

In the wake of this, the government and regulators have announced several amendments relaxing upcoming deadlines, for the benefit of all. This 21-day lockdown has caused a cascading effect in the pushing back of deadlines by the Income-tax department, Goods and Services Tax Council, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Reserve Bank of India etc.

Latest on-board this bandwagon is the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Recently, the market regulator has granted relaxations from compliance to the following:

  1. Real Estate Investment Trusts and Infrastructure Investment Trusts
  2. Shareholders, under certain provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011
  3. Credit Rating Agencies, from certain provisions under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Credit Rating Agencies) Regulations, 1999

Evidently, SEBI has also accorded relaxation to listed entities from compliance with provisions of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. With respect to this, SEBI issued circulars on 19 March 2020, 23 March 2020 and 26 March 2020.

Focusing on SEBI's Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements Regulations; these regulations apply to listed entities, who have listed on recognised stock exchanges, securities specified under regulation 3.

Here is a regulation-wise analysis of the relaxations granted in each case -

? Regulation 7 lays down that the timeline for submission of a compliance certificate,to the exchange, on share transfer facility is to be made half yearly within one month from the end of every half of a financial year.The upcoming due date of 30th April 2020 has been extended by one month to 31st May 2020.

- Regulation 13requires that a listed entity must file on a quarterly basis, a statement relating to investor complaints,withintwenty one days from the end of each quarter. This statement should disclose details about the number of complaints that were pending at the beginning of the quarter, the number of complaints received during the said quarter, the number that of complaints disposed of during the quarter and the number of complaints that are still unresolved at the end of the quarter.The due date of such filing was fixed for 21st April 2020, but has been extended to 15th May 2020 by approximately three weeks.

- Regulation 17 mandates the meeting of the Board of Directors at least four times a year with a gap of not more than one hundred and twenty days between any two meetings. Similarly Regulation 18 mandates the meeting of the Audit Committee at least four times a year with a gap of not more than one hundred and twenty daysbetween two meetings. For these regulatory provisions SEBI has exempted the observation of the maximum time gap between two meetings for the meetings held or proposed to be held between 1st December 2019 and 30th June 2020. But it does not exempt them from the requirement of holding at least four meetings in the year.

- Regulation 19 requires the Nomination and Remuneration Committee to meet at least one time in year. The due date for this meeting has been extended by three months from 31st March 2020 to 30th June 2020.

- Regulation 20 necessitates the meeting of the Stakeholders Relationship Committee at least once in a year.The due date for this meeting has been extended by three months from 31st March 2020 to 30th June 2020.

- Regulation 21 calls for the meeting of the Risk Management Committee at least once a year. The due date for this too has been extended by three months from 31st March 2020 to 30th June 2020.

- Regulation 24A mandates that every listed entity along with its unlisted subsidiaries should annex their Secretarial Audit Report with their Annual Report which is to be duly filed by the 30th of May 2020. This due date has been extended by one month to 30th June 2020.

- Regulation 27 relates to a quarterly Compliance Report on corporate governance that is to be submitted withing fifteen days from the day of the close of the quarter. The due date for the submission of this report has been postponed from 15th April 2020 to 15th May 2020.

- Regulation 31 lays down that a listed entity is required to submit,within twenty one days from the end of every quarter, a statement showing the holding of securities and shareholding pattern separately for each class of securities. The due date of this submission has been extended by approximately three weeks from 21st April 2020 to 15th May 2020.

- Regulation 33 relates to submission of Financial Results quarterly and annually. It is to be submitted within forty five days from the end of each quarter except the last quarter, and within sixty days from the end of the financial year for Annual Financial Results. The due dates for this submission were 15th May 2020 and 30th May 2020, respectively which have been extended for both to 30th June 2020.

- Regulation 40 states that a listed entity is required to produce a certificate certified by a practicing Company Secretary that all certificates have been issued timely. This certificate is to be produced within one month from the end of each half of the financial year. The due date for the production of this certificate has been extended by one month, from 30th April 2020 to 31st May 2020.

- Regulation 44 calls for the holding of Annual General Meetings of the top 100 listed entities as determined on 31st March of every financial year. Their AGM should be held withing five months from the date of closure of their financial year. The due date as calculated was 31st August 2020 which has been pushed forward, by one month, to 30th September 2020.

- Regulation 52 relates to the obligations of a listed entity with regards to the listing of its non-convertible debt securities or non-convertible preference shares or both. It is required to submit its un-audited or audited financial results on a half yearly basis within 45 days from the end of the half year and on an annual basis within 60 days from the end of the financial year. The due dates have been extended from 15th May 2020 and 30th May 2020, respectively, to 30th June 2020 for both these reports.

- For the purpose of large corporate initial and annual disclosure which is to be made on a yearly basis, the due date for Initial Disclosure has been extended from 30th April 2020 to 30th June 2020 and the due date for Annual Disclosure has been extended from 15th May 2020 to 30th June 2020.

- In the case of Commercial Papers, its financial results are required to be submitted half yearly and annually. Half yearly results are to be submitted within forty five days from the end of the half year and annual results are to be submitted within sixty days from the end of the financial year. Therefore, the due dates for the half yearly and annual report submission have been extended from 15th May 2020 and 30th May 2020, respectively, to 30th June 2020 in case of both.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India declares that the effect of the circulars should be immediate and has advised the Stock Exchanges to bring to the notice of all its listed entities, the provisions of the given circulars.

Over the course of the century, India's moribund state and political systems have proven to be incapable of dealing with the challenges that pandemics and climate change pose. Therefore, a lockdown during a prevalent pandemic followed by extension of regulatory and compliance deadlines have given room to businesses - both small and large to re-plan, recuperate and recover from the damage caused due to a lockdown. Therefore, relaxation of deadlines in the wake of a pandemic is a welcome move so as to minimize the catastrophic effects - physically, financially an otherwise.

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