Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in a bid to line its incorporation related services with best international practices, launched Central Registration Centre (CRC) on the occasion of Republic Day 2016 vide notification number S.O. 218(E) dated 22nd January, 2016.
CRC is a part of MCA’s Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) which aims at automating some of the approval processes of the MCA. CRC was established for discharging out the function of processing and disposal of applications for company incorporations. CRC will have territorial jurisdiction all over India.
Prior to establishment of CRC, the approvals or rejections of company incorporation forms were handled by jurisdictional Registrar of Companies (ROCs). At present there are 22 ROCs in India catering to 29 states and 7 union territories of India[1].
The launch of CRC is planned in three phases.
Reservation of names:
In Phase 1(launched on 22nd January, 2016), the CRC was given authority to process applications for reservation of names made under e-from INC-1. Approval of names proposed in e-form INC-29 was still done by the ROCs having respective jurisdiction over incorporation of companies under the Companies Act, 2013.
Company Incorporation / Registration:
In Phase 2 (launched on 23rd March, 2016), CRC was further given authority to process and dispose e-forms related to registration of Companies having territorial jurisdiction all over India. CRC can process e-forms INC-2, INC-7, INC-29 along with linked forms INC-22, DIR-12 and URC-1. The jurisdictional ROC within whose Jurisdiction the registered office of the Company is situated shall continue to have jurisdiction over them for other provisions (other than incorporation) and rules made under the Companies Act, 2013.
Phase 3 is still under process and yet to be notified.
The GPR initiative of MCA was taken with a view to provide greater ease of doing business to corporates. This initiative is expected to speed up the processing of incorporation related applications, have uniformity in application of rules and to eradicate discretion.
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[1] Looking at the quantum of Companies registered in various regions of India, the ROCs have been distributed in such manner that in states where company registrations are more, like in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, there are 2 ROCs serving the state, and in states with less company registrations, they have been clubbed and provided with 1 ROC. For example companies registered in seven sisters of India have been provided with 1 ROC in Shillong; there is 1 ROC serving companies in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana at Hyderabad; companies with registered office in Punjab, Chandigarh & Himachal Pradesh have been clubbed and provided with 1 ROC at Chandigarh; and ROC at Kanpur serves the companies in both Uttar Pradesh & Uttarakhand.
