oppn parties Drop Jail Term As Penalty For Non-Compliance With CSR Norms

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October 17, 2026

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
oppn parties
Drop Jail Term As Penalty For Non-Compliance With CSR Norms

By Sunil Garodia

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

If the Finance Ministry had a committee working on how to make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) more effective and meaningful and make companies comply with it, what was the rush to get the punitive amendments passed in Parliament? Just a couple of weeks after the amendment to prescribe jail terms for not meeting CSR requirements (which obviously raised hackles in the corporate world and legal circles), the committee, headed by Corporate Affairs Secretary Injeti Srinivas, has said that jail terms are not the answer and has suggested fines and putting the funds in an escrow account as alternatives. It has also recommended that CSR expenditure be allowed as a deduction from taxable income.

The committee has sensibly recommended that non-compliance should be a civil offence and it should be de-criminalized. It has suggested an increased fine of up to Rs 1 crore instead of Rs 25 lakhs as proposed in the amended Companies Act. It has also proposed that the unspent CSR funds should be allowed to be carried forward for three to five years by putting them in a separate account. The committee said in the report that "CSR is a means to partner corporates for social development and such penal provisions are not in harmony with the spirit of CSR." This is the line that the government should ideally adopt. 

But figures with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show that companies have been lax in complying with CSR norms in the absence of punitive measures. Nearly fifty percent of the companies that fall under the CSR bracket (having a net worth of Rs 500 crore or turnover of Rs 1000 crore or net profit of Rs 5 crore) failed to file reports of how they spent the mandated 2 percent of the average profits they made in the three previous years under CSR; or even if they spent a single paisa at all. If the legal provision is there, companies cannot be allowed to flout it. Businessmen only understand the language of money. So if hefty fines are imposed and the unspent funds are taken away from them, they will try their best to comply. Hence, punitive measures are welcome but criminalizing non-compliance is not one of them. The government must review the amendments and drop the criminal penalty clause. 

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