Distinction between a Company and a Corporation (i.e. Company vis-à-vis Body Corporate)
Generally speaking, an association of persons incorporated according to the relevant law and clothed with legal personality separate from the persons constituting it is known as a corporation. The word ‘corporation’ or words ‘body corporate’ is/are both used in the Companies Act, 2013.
Definition of the same which is reproduced below is contained in Clause (11) of Section 2 of the Act:
“Body corporate” or “corporation” includes a company incorporated outside India, but does not include –
(i) a co-operative society registered under any law relating to co-operative societies; and
(ii) any other body corporate (not being a company as defined in this Act),
which the Central Government may, by notification, specify in this behalf;
A society registered under the Societies Registration Act has been held by the Supreme Court in Board of Trustees v. State of Delhi, A.I.R. 1962 S.C. 458, not to come within the term ‘body corporate’ under the Companies Act, though it is a legal person capable of holding property and becoming a member of a company.