Section 149 of Companies Act, 2013 read with the corresponding rules requires every listed company and prescribed class of companies to have a women director. Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has also mandated under SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations 2015 for appointment of at least one woman director on the boards of listed companies. Government and SEBI have not prescribed any target for companies to have 20% women on the boards of the companies by the year 2020.

As per information extracted from MCA21 Registry, as on 31.03.2017, 25.01% of the directors on the boards of companies are women directors.

This was stated by Shri P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law & Justice / Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

Women director requirement: listed and prescribed companies must appoint women directors; registry reports notable female board representation. Section 149 of the Companies Act, 2013 and corresponding rules require listed and prescribed companies to appoint at least one woman director, and the Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements regime imposes a similar mandate; national registry data is cited to indicate current levels of female board representation.