Firms Found Breaching Basic Company Law in Crackdown

Most of the companies against which penalty orders have been issued are small businesses

- Gireesh Chandra Prasad

Registrars of Companies (RoCs) across the country have stepped up their compliance enforcement drive, with the largest number of penalty orders in the past five years getting issued in fiscal year 2025 (FY25), according to official data available from the ministry of corporate affairs.

Most of the over 1,160 adjudication orders issued by RoCs in FY25 are on breaches of fundamental company law requirements such as maintaining a registered office, reporting any change in registered office to the authorities, filing financial statements and annual reports on time, appointment of key managerial persons, filing of board decisions with the RoCs as well as issues like reporting significant beneficial ownership—a new area of enforcement.

Nearly half of these companies are private limited, which have a lower disclosure requirement than public limited companies under the Companies Act.