Answers:

A company is an artificial person and therefore, must act through some human intermediary. The various provisions of law empower shareholders to do certain things. They are specifically reserved for them to be done in company’s general meetings. Section 291 empowers the Board of Directors to manage the affairs of the company. The Act has made provisions for following different types of meetings of shareholders:
(i) Statutory Meeting;
(ii) Annual General Meeting;
(iii) Extraordinary General Meeting; and
(iv) Class Meetings. 

Statutory meetings (Section 165)
The most important legal provisions regarding statutory meetings are:
·         It is required to be held only by a public company having share capital.
·         It must be held within a period of not less than one month and not more than six months from the date on which the company is entitled to commence business.
·         At least 21 days before the day of meeting, a notice of the meeting is to be sent to every member stating it to be a Statutory Meeting.

Annual general meeting (AGM) (Sections 166-168)
As the name signifies, this is an annual meeting of a company. The provisions relating to this meeting are:
·         Every company, whether public or private, having a share capital or not, limited or unlimited must hold this meeting.
·         The meeting must be held in each calendar year and not more than 15 months shall elapse between two meetings.
·         The meeting must be held
o   On a day that is not a public holiday
o   During business hours           
o   At the registered office of the company or at some other place within the city, town or village in which the registered office is situated.

Extraordinary Meeting (EGM) Section 169
Clause 47 of Table A (Schedule – I) provides that all general meetings other than AGMs shall be called the EGMs. The legal provisions as regards such meetings are:
·         EGM is convened for transacting some special or urgent business that may arise in between two AGMs, for instance, change in the objects or shift of registered office or alteration of capital. All business transacted at such meetings is called special business. Therefore, every item on the agenda must be accompanied by an ‘Explanatory Statement’.
·         An EGM may be called by:
o   Directors of their own accord
o   Directors on requisition
o   Requisitionists themselves

o   The Tribunal. The Board of Directors may call a general meeting of the members at any time by giving not less than 21 days’ notice. A shorter notice may, however, be held valid if consent is accorded thereto by members of the company holding 95 percent or more of the voting rights (Section 171).