New Delhi, Dec 16, 2016: Sebi's regulatory norms of appointing at least one woman director on the respective billboards till December 13, has not been followed by as many as 15 public sector firms including ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation. Reports of it went to the Parliament on Friday.

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As per the new Sebi directives and the Company's Act, 2013 all the listed firms were required to have at least one woman director on their boards from April 1, 2015. These rules are aimed at ensuring gender diversity in boardrooms.

As on December 13, 2016, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, GAIL, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Scooters India, MMTC and Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore have not appointed women directors on their board, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said in a written reply to Lok Sabha, mentioned PTI.

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Other non-complaint firms are State Trading Corporation of India, Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company, Bharat Immunologicals & Biologicals Corp, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers and Neyveli Lignite Corporation, he added.

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According to the Minister 169 and 1,106 companies listed on the NSE and BSE respectively had not appointed women directors as on September 30, this year. To avert this discrimination by acting against listed firms without a mandatory woman director, Sebi in April 2015 had announced a minimum Rs 50,000 fine. Further action against non-compliance of the directives include action against promoters and directors, if they remain non-compliant beyond six months.

A four stage penalty structure is announced by the market watchdog wherein fines would increase with the passage of time. It had asked the stock exchanges to levy the fines as the violation relates the Listing Agreement.

– prepared by Saptaparni Goon of NewsGram. Twitter: @saptaparni_goon