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43 Statute L. Rev. 170 (2022)
Legislated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India: The Law and Practicalities of Its Compliance

handle is hein.journals/statlr43 and id is 175 raw text is: Statute Law Review, 2022, Vol. 43, No. 2, 170-197 doi:10.1093/slr/hmaa004 Advance Access publication 22 May 2020 Legislated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India: The Law and Practicalities of its Compliance Akanksha Jumde* and Jean du Plessis** ABSTRACT When India enacted the Companies Act, 2013, it became one of the few countries of the world to make Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a legal obligation for a large number of Indian companies. Using a comprehensive analysis of companies' CSR disclos- ures and the interviews of relevant stakeholders, this article provides a bird's-eye view on the major issues plaguing the current regulatory framework on CSR in India. In addition, this article highlights the major differences between privately owned and government companies on their motivations, approaches and challenges to the implementation and enforcement of CSRlaw of India. This article finds that the Indian CSR regulations are ex- cessively broad and provide wide flexibilities that are possibly being misused, and hence, need legislative amendments to make them more concise, and improve accountability and transparency. From a broader corporate law perspective, this article finds that while the current company law in India may have adopted a more stakeholder-centric approach by its construction, the approach of many companies towards the enforcement and im- plementation of CSR and the law remains essentially shareholder centric. In light of the above observations, the article suggests that the existing regulatory framework needs to be strengthened with several legislative measures such as stricter auditing and monitoring measures for third-party implementing agencies and pre-and post-project impact assess- ment mechanisms. 1. INTRODUCTION On 29 August 2013, India's Parliament, enacted its new Companies Act, 2013, repealing the old Companies Act, 1956, and drew worldwide attention, by boldly mandating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), under its new companies' law.' The Companies * Doctoral Candidate, Deakin Law School, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; Assistant Professor, School of Legal Studies, Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. Email: akankshajumde@cutn.ac.in; ajumde@deakin.edu.au. This article would not have been completed without the generous support of my father who helped me to contact the interview parti- cipants. I am also deeply indebted to Prof. Umakanth Varottil, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, for his highly useful comments and suggestions for the article. ** Professor (Corporate Law), Deakin University, Australia. AE McArdle A Stick in the Global Carrot Patch: The Business of Corporate Social Responsibility in India's Companies Act 2013' (2015) 38 Suffolk Transnat'l L. Rev. 467. SThe Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. . 170

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