Registrar of Companies India: Roles, Functions, Address List

The Companies Act of 1956, gives the Ministry of Corporate Affairs the powers to appoint a regulatory body the (Registrar of Companies ) which is in charge of Company Incorporation as well as LLP Registration across the various states and union territories in the country. Presently,  22 ROCs are in operation all throughout the country. Some states also have the provisions of multiple ROCs operational for eg.  Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. The  Registrar also indicates that the LLPs in India, comply with the ROC Compliances.

The Registrar of Companies is in charge of maintaining a registry of records with regards to the registered companies and allows information access to the general public concerning payment of the stipulated fee. Administratively,  the Registrar is under the control of the Central Government aided by the support of the Regional Directors. As of this day, the supervision of the Registrar is being overlooked by a total of 7 regional directors maintaining smooth operations in their relevant regions. Let's look at the operations, roles as well as functions of the RoC in detail. You can also find the RoC office addresses for the various regions at the bottom.

Any company wishing to operate within legal bounds in India has to get itself registered under the RoC rules and regulations. A company is considered to be a legally registered company when it has received the certificate of incorporation from the registrar.

The statutory procedure to register a company requires that the companies submit a wide range of documentation as per the compliance requirements of that particular business structures. Some of these documents include Memorandum of Association (MoA) and the Articles of Association (AoA). Along with this, companies have to file the pre-incorporation agreement for director's/managing director's appointment and a document signed by an authorized individual declaring that all the compliances and requirements for the company incorporation have been met by the proposed company.

After receiving the said documents and authenticating the registrar of companies inputs the name of the company in their register and release the certificate of incorporation to the concerned company. Along with the company's incorporation certificate, the ROC also issues a commencement of business certificate. Every Public Limited Company has to get this certificate before they begin any business activities.

ROC Refusal Rights

The Registrar of Companies in India has reserved the right to refuse to incorporate a company which creates an issue. The refusal of the company incorporation could stem from a variety of reasons. If the Registrar has an objection with any of the clauses mentioned in the Memorandum of Association of the company i.e. Name, Object, Registered Office, Capital and Liability clauses they might refuse to incorporate the company. The Registrar has also been instructed not to incorporate any company with an objectionable name. Of course in addition to any objectionable name, if the company's objective seems unlawful to the registrar are obligated to refuse the registration of that particular company.

Resolution Filing with ROC

The provisions of Section 117, of the Companies Act of 2013 dictates that each and every resolution passed by the companies has to be filed with the registrar within a maximum of 30 days. The Registrar of Companies has to record all resolutions hence passed by companies as part of their responsibilities. The Companies Act of 2013 has also specified penalty and fines in case a company fails to file any resolutions with the registrar within the stipulated time. Basically, companies have to intimate ROC about any and all activities that might be happening with regards to change in directors or managing directors, issuing a prospectus, Appointment of Sole-Selling agents or voluntary winding up etc.