A total of 1,375 BSE-listed companies and 191 NSE-listed companies have been fined for failing to appoint women directors on their respective boards. Out of these, two are public sector banks and 22 are central public sector enterprises. The information was given by minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Under the Companies Act, 2013, all listed companies are required to have at least one woman director on board. The markets regulator SEBI, too, had given the same directive. This was aimed at ensuring gender diversity in boardrooms. According to norms, a woman director can be either executive or non-executive, or independent or non-independent director.

As on March 31, out of 5,451 companies listed on BSE, 1,375 have failed to appoint a woman director on their respective boards. Similarly, of the 1,759 NSE-listed companies, 191 did not comply with the SEBI norms.

In a separate reply, Sinha said that SEBI has not made it mandatory for listed companies to report whether a director is a family member of the promoter.