ROC Gujarat levied penalty of Rs. 1.50 Lacs on secretarial auditor

ROC Gujarat levied penalty of Rs. 1.50 Lacs on of for violation of Section 143 (14) read with Section 188 and 204 of the Companies Act.

As per the section 143(12) of the Companies Att. 2013, “Notwithstanding anything coma toed in this section. if an auditor of a company in the course of the performance of his duties as auditor pga e tobettptetttat to offence fraud involving such amount or amounts as may be prescribed. isItlag or has been committed in the comnanv by Its officers or emolovees the auditor shall report the matter to the Central Government within such tone and in such manner as may be prescribed..

Therefore, we hereby submit dsa during the performance of our duty as a secretarial auditor during the Reporting Period, we did nor find any fraud element based on our review based on information / documents received during audit. Hence It could not be said that we, the secretarial auditor had not complied with section 143(12) of the Companies Act, 2013 and therefore no penalty should be levied as per Show Cause Notice.

Having considered the facts and submissions made by Presenting Officer and submission made by the Secretarial Auditor and after taking Into amounts the facts & factors above, I hereby imposed a penalty on Secretarial Auditors Firm as per table below for violation of section 143(14) r/w section 188 & 204 of the Companies Act, 2013. I am of the opinion that penalty is commensumte with the aforesaid failure for not discharging thew statutory duty:

Penalty on Auditors Firm for default:

For Financial Year	Name of Auditors Firm	Penalty as per Section 450 of the Companies Act, 2013 (Rs)	Maximum Penalty ( in Rs.)	Penalty Imposed (Rs.)
FY 2014-15	C. J. Goswami & Associates, Practicing Company Secretary	10,000 + 1000/ per day	50,000/-	50,000/-
FY 2015-16		10,000 + 1000/ per day	50,000/-	50,000/-
Fy 2016-17		10,000 + 1000/ per day	50,000/-	50,000/-