Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been turned into an optional act of philanthropy to an obligatory offer of the modern day corporate legislation, particularly in such a jurisdiction as India whereby the statutory regulation of the corporate social spending and a mechanism of corporate governance must be fulfilled by the statutory provisions. In this study, the critical identification of CSR as a legal requirement refers to the statutory requirements, compliance trends, the enforcement processes, the problems in implementing the corporate responsibilities and the general implication of corporate responsibility and sustainable development. The study takes the doctrinal and comparative legal research design supported by quantitative researchers of compliance and qualitative governance information to the study of what impact the CSR requirements under([135] of the Companies Act, 2013) have had on the corporate behaviour and social expenditure patterns.

The failure of CSR initiatives is restricted by the implementation barriers which involve compliance-based CSR, transparency and accountability absence, administrative delays and poor stakeholder engagement. Besides, the differences in the enforcement mechanisms and the issue of the necessity of the improvement of the legal clarity, outcome-oriented reporting, and the efficient monitoring structures are discovered in the study. Relative observations indicate that the principle-based CSR regimes in other jurisdiction offer alternative schemes of governance, but may lack the forcefulness nature of statutory requirements. To ensure CSR can positively impact the socio-economic outcome the research recommends the following changes in the policy including strengthening of enforcement provisions, aligning CSR with national development goals, giving incentives to high-impact projects, and improving stakeholder collaboration are some of the changes to policy..