Every company is required to file Articles of Association along with the Memorandum of Association with the Registrar at the time of its registration. Companies Act defines ‘Articles as Articles of Association of a company as originally framed or as altered from time to time in pursuance of any previous companies Acts. They also include, so far as they apply to the company, those in the Table A in Schedule I annexed to the Act or corresponding provisions in earlier Acts.
Articles of Association are the rules, regulations and bye-laws for governing the internal affairs of the company. According to Section 2(2) of the Companies Act, 1956 ‘articles’ means the articles of association of a company as originally framed or as altered from time to time in pursuance of any previous companies laws or of the present Act, i.e. the Act of 1956. They may be described as the internal regulation of the company governing its management and embodying the powers of the directors and officers of the company as well as the powers of the shareholders. They lay down the mode and the manner in which the business of the company is to be conducted.
In Naresh Chandra Sanyal vs Calcutta Stock Exchange Association Ltd1, the SC said that the articles of association also establish a contract between the company and the members and between the members inter se. This contract governs the ordinary rights and obligations incidental to membership in the company.
In framing Articles of Association care must be taken to see that regulations framed do not go beyond the powers of the company it self as contemplated by the Memorandum of Association nor should they be such as would violate any of the requirements of the companies Act, itself. All clauses in the Articles ultra vires the Memorandum or the Act shall be null and void.
Article of Association are to be printed, divided into paragraphs, serially numbered and signed by each subscriber to Memorandum with the