On May 27, 2011, ACGA wrote letters opposing a recommendation by the Indian parliament's Standing Committee on Finance to remove the right of shareholders to appoint proxies. The proposal was made in a report that was given to the parliament in August 2010. The letters were addressed to Dr. K. P. Krishnan, Secretary, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and Shri D. K. Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs. We also sent a copy to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

The Committee argued that since postal ballots were already in use and electronic voting was being introduced in the new Companies Bill, "the need for proxies may become minimal". In our letter we noted that postal ballots can only be used for certain special resolutions, such as major transactions; they cannot substitute for ordinary resolutions in an AGM.

Meanwhile, the argument that electronic voting will make proxies obsolete is premature - not only will the adoption of electronic voting be voluntary on the part of companies, but experience in other markets in Asia (Japan, Taiwan and Korea) indicates that implementing this system takes time and is harder than regulators expect.