Shareholder - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition shareholder

Definition :

Shareholder, word 'shareholder' can mean only a registered shareholder. It is difficult to see how a beneficial owner of shares whose name does not appear in the register of shareholders of the company can be said to be a 'shareholder'. He may be beneficially entitled to the shares but he is certainly not a 'shareholder'. It is only the person whose name is entered in the register of share-holders of the company as the holder of the shares who can be said to be a shareholder qua the company, and not the person beneficially entitled to the shares. It is the former who is a 'shareholder' within the matrix and scheme of the company law and not the latter, Rameshwar Lal Sanwarmal v. Commissioner of Income Tax, AIR 1980 SC 372: (1980) 2 SCC 371 (376): (1980) 2 SCR 369. [Income Tax Act, 1922, s. 2(64)(e)]

One who owns or holds a share or shares in a company, esp. a corporation, Black's Law Diction-ary, 7th Edn., p. 1380.