Section 496, The Companies Act, 2009

(1) For the purposes of this Act, an invitation shall bedeemed to be made to the public, if an offer or invitation to make an offer is- (a) published, advertised or disseminated by newspaper, broadcasting, cinematograph, or any other means whatsoever; (b) made to or circulated among any persons whether selected as members or as debenture holders of the company concerned or as clients of the persons making or circulating the invitation or in any other manner; (c) made to any one or more persons to acquire any securities dealt in upon any stock exchange or in respect of which the invitation states that application has been or shall be made for permission to deal in those securities upon any stock exchange; but:– (i) nothing in this section shall be taken as requiring any invitation to be treated as made to the public if it can properly be regarded in all the circumstances as not being calculated to result, directly or indirectly, in the shares or debentures becoming available for subscription or purchase by persons other than those receiving that offer or invitation or otherwise as being a domestic concern of the persons making and receiving it; (ii) an invitation made by or on behalf of a private company exclusively to its existing shareholders (not being greater in number than 50 and its existing employees) shall not be deemed to be an invitation to the public unless the invitation is of the type referred to in this paragraph. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the issue of any form of application for securities or of any form to be completed on the deposit of money with a company shall be deemed to be an invitation to acquire those shares or to deposit money.