News and Important Updates from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) under Companies Act, 2013

No further extension to file Form Active INC-22A It is to be noted that the last date for filing Form ACTIVE (INC-22A) expires on 15th day of June 2019 and no further extension would be provided under the companies act 2013. In case Form ACTIVE (INC-22A) is not filed on or before the said date, the compliance status for such companies shall be marked as ‘ACTIVE Non compliant’ and Directors of such ‘ACTIVE non-compliant’ companies shall be marked as ‘Director of ACTIVE non-compliant company’. The Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Second Amendment Rules, 2019 MCA had vide its notification dated 16^th May 2019 inserted the below-mentioned rule after rule 12A to the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014: Rule 12B: Directors of company required to file e-form ACTIVE:

1. In case the company which is governed by Rule 25A of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 i.e. every company (other than struck off company or company which is under liquidation or amalgamated or dissolved) incorporated on or before the 31^st day of December, 2017, fails to file the e-form ACTIVE within the period specified therein, the DIN allotted to its existing directors, shall be marked as “Director of ACTIVE non-compliant company”.
2. Where the DIN of a director has been marked as “Director of ACTIVE non-compliant company”, such director shall take all necessary steps to ensure that all companies governed by rule 25A of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014 as stated aforesaid, where such director has been so appointed, file e-form ACTIVE.
3. Once all the companies referred to in sub-rule (2) file the e-form ACTIVE, the DIN of such director shall be marked as “Director of ACTIVE compliant company”.’

The Companies (Incorporation) Fifth Amendment Rules, 2019  MCA had vide its notification dated 10^th day of May, 2019 notified the Companies (Incorporation) Fifth Amendment Rules, 2019. A name applied for shall be deemed to resemble too nearly with the name of an existing company, if, and only if, after comparing the name applied for with the name of an existing company by disregarding the matters set out below, the names are same: The following matters are to be disregarded while comparing the names as per the above:

1. the words like Private, Pvt, Pvt., (P), OPC Pvt. Ltd., IFSC Limited, IFSC Pvt. Limited, Producer Limited, Limited, Unlimited, Ltd, Ltd., LLP, Limited Liability Partnership, company, and company, & co, & co., co., co, corporation, corp, corpn, corp or group;
2. the plural or singular form of words in one or both names;
3. type and case of letters, spacing between letters, punctuation marks and special characters used in one or both names
4. use of different tenses in one or both names
5. use of different phonetic spellings including use of misspelled words of an expression
6. use of host name such as ‘www’ or a domain extension such as ‘net’, ‘org’, ‘dot’ or ‘com’ in one or both names;
7. the order of words in the names;
8. use of the definite or indefinite article in one or both names
9. a slight variation in the spelling of the two names including a grammatical variation thereof;
10. complete translation or transliteration, and not part thereof, of an existing name, in Hindi or in English;
11. addition of the name of a place to an existing name, which does not contain the name of any place;
12. addition, deletion, or modification of numerals or expressions denoting numerals in an existing name, unless the numeral represents any brand

Provided that clauses (f) to (h) and clauses (k) and (l) shall not be disregarded while comparing the names, if a no objection by way of a Board resolution has been provided by an existing company. The notification also lists down the criteria for determining if a name is undesirable and the names which can be used after obtaining the approval of Central Government. Clarification for Form ADT 1filed through GNL 2 under the Companies Act, 2013 MCA had vide its notification dated 13^th day of May, 2019 clarified that Companies which had filed form ADT 1 through GNL 2 as an attachment (By selecting “Others”) during the period from 1^st  April 2014 to 20^th October 2014 may file e form ADT 1 for the period up to 31^st March.2019 without fee till 15^th day of June, 2019 and thereafter fee and additional fee shall be applicable as per Companies (Registration of Officer and Fees) Rules, 2014. Contact us for more information. Last Updated: 5^th June 2019 This article is contributed by:  Luv Malhotra Senior Manager, Legal

Tag: Companies Act, MCA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs