Under Section 194 of Companies Act 2017 a public company must have a company secretary; possessing such qualification as may be specified.

• Public company means a company which is not a private company;
• Public interest company means a company which falls under the criteria as laid down in the Third Schedule to this Act or deemed to be such company under section 216;
• Public sector company means a company, whether public or private, which is directly or indirectly controlled, beneficially owned or not less than fifty-one percent of the voting securities or voting power of which are held by the Government or any agency of the Government or a statutory body, or in respect of which the Government or any agency of the Government or a statutory body, has otherwise power to elect, nominate or appoint majority of its directors and includes a public sector association not for profit, licenced under section 42:
• Provided that nomination of directors by the Commission on the board of the securities exchange or any other entity or operation of any other law shall not make it a public sector company

Regulation 24 of CCG Regulations 2019: No person shall be appointed as the company secretary unless he holds the qualification as specified under the relevant Regulations by the Commission: Provided, the same person shall not simultaneously hold office of chief financial officer and the company secretary of a listed company.