Section 149 of the Companies Act, 2013 read with Rule 3 of the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014 makes it mandatory for every listed company and every public company having paid-up share capital of not less than Rupees one hundred crore or turnover of Rupees three hundred crore or more to appoint at least one woman director.

As per information obtained from MCA21 database, there are 1,26,077 public limited companies in the country. 4,83,323 companies, including public limited companies, are having women Directors as Board Members.

This was stated by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Mandatory woman director requirement applies to listed companies and large public companies; registry data shows adoption levels. Section 149 and Rule 3 require a mandatory woman director for listed companies and public companies meeting statutory capital or turnover thresholds; ministry registry data reports the count of public limited companies and the number of companies with women directors.