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Pathak Associates
Glossary

What is ROC?

Also called: Registrar of Companies

The Registrar of Companies is the Ministry of Corporate Affairs office that incorporates companies and holds their statutory filings, with a registrar for each state or group of states.

Jharkhand companies fall under the ROC at Patna, which covers both Bihar and Jharkhand. Every company files its annual return in MGT-7 and its financial statements in AOC-4, plus event-based forms whenever directors, addresses or capital change.

The registrar can strike a company off the register for persistent non-filing, and directors of a struck-off company are disqualified for five years.

Why it matters

ROC penalties accrue daily and are not capped. A company two years behind on filings can owe more in late fees than its annual turnover.

The statutory position

Each figure with the provision it comes from, so it can be checked.
WhatPositionSource
OfficeThe Registrar of Companies for the state in which the registered office is situatedSection 396, Companies Act 2013
Annual financial statementsForm AOC-4 within 30 days of the AGMSection 137, Companies Act 2013
Annual returnForm MGT-7 within 60 days of the AGMSection 92, Companies Act 2013
Additional fee for late filing₹100 per day per form, with no capSection 403 read with the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules
Striking off for non-filingPermitted after two consecutive years of defaultSection 248, Companies Act 2013

Not to be confused with

These get used interchangeably, including by tools that should know better. They are different things.

MCA

The MCA is the ministry and the national portal. The ROC is the state-level office that actually holds your company's file and processes its filings.

Registrar of Firms

A different registrar under a different statute, registering partnership firms under the Indian Partnership Act 1932. Companies and LLPs do not go there.

Questions people ask

What if my company did no business this year?
The filings are still due. A dormant company files AOC-4 and MGT-7 as usual, and the ₹100-a-day additional fee runs on a nil filing exactly as it would on a trading one.
Can I move my registered office to another state?
Yes, but it requires a special resolution, an application to the Regional Director and a transfer of the file between ROC offices. It is a project rather than a form.

What usually goes wrong

  • Assuming a dormant company has nothing to file
  • Letting the ₹100-a-day additional fee run across two forms for years, which is what turns a small default into a large one
  • Missing the AGM date itself, which is what starts both filing clocks
  • Not updating the registered office address, so notices are served somewhere nobody reads them
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