Company Law

Types of companies [Ch. I]

Private company [S. 2(68)]

Public company [S. 2(71)]

means a company having a minimum paid up share capital as may be prescribed, and which, by its articles,—

  1. restricts the right to transfer its shares;
  2. except in case of OPC, limits the number of its members to 200

    Provided that where 2 or more persons hold 1 or more shares in a company jointly, they shall, for the purposes of this clause, be treated as a single member

    Provided further that—

    • persons who are in the employment of the company; and
    • persons who, having been formerly in the employment of the company, were members of the company while in that employment and have continued to be members after the employment ceased,

    shall not be included in the number of members; and

  3. prohibits any invitation to the public to subscribe for any securities of the company;

means a company which—

  1. is not a private company;
  2. has a minimum paid-up share capital as may be prescribed:

Provided that a company which is a subsidiary of a company, not being a private company, shall be deemed to be public company for the purposes of this Act even where such subsidiary company continues to be a private company in its articles

Private company can be further sub-divided into:

OPC [S. 2(62)]

Small Company [S. 2(85)]

Others

means a company which has only one person as a member;

means a company, having —

  1. paid-up share capital not > ₹ 50 lakhs or such higher amount as may be prescribed which shall not be > ₹ 10 crores; and
  2. turnover as per profit and loss a/c for the immediately preceding FY does not > ₹ 2 crore or such higher amount as may be prescribed which shall not be > ₹ 100 crore:

And which is not —

  • a public company;
  • a holding company;
  • a subsidiary company;
  • a section 8 company; or
  • a company or body corporate governed by any Special Act;

Other than OPC or a Small Company