CENTRAL PROCESSING CENTRE - MCA

[Mr. M. GOVINDARAJAN]

Section 396 (1) of the Companies Act, 2013 provides that the Central Government shall, by notification, establish such number of offices at such places as it thinks fit, specifying their jurisdiction for the purposes of registration of companies.  Section 396(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 provides that the Central Government may appoint such Registrars, Additional, Joint, Deputy and Assistant Registrars as it considers necessary for the registration of companies and discharge of various functions under this Act, and the powers and duties that may be exercisable by such officers shall be such as may be prescribed.

By virtue of the powers conferred under Section 396(1) and 396(2) of the Companies Act, 2013 the Central Government established a Central Processing Centre (‘CPC’ for short) at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Plot No. 6,7,8, Sector 5, IMT Manesar, District Gurgaon (Haryana), Pin Code- 122050 having territorial jurisdiction all over India, for the purpose of the provisions of the said section, vide Notification No. S.O. 446 (E), dated 02.02.2024 which came into effect from 06.02.2024, to process forms filed as part of various regulatory requirements under Companies Act and Limited Liability Partnership Act  in a centralized manner, requiring no physical interaction with the stakeholders.

The Central Processing Centre shall process and dispose off e-forms filed along with the fee as provided in the Companies (Registration of Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014.   The jurisdictional Registrar, other than Registrar of the Central Processing Centre, within whose jurisdiction the registered office of the company is situated, shall continue to have jurisdiction over the companies whose e-forms are processed by the Registrar of the Central Processing Centre in respect of all other provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the rules made there under.

For this purposes the Central Government has made amendments to Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014, vide Notification No. GSR 107(E), dated 14.02.2024, which came into effect from 16.02.2024.

This amendment proposed to insert a new Rule 10A.  From 16.02.2024, 12 forms/applications as listed below shall be processed at CPC-

• MGT - 14 - Filing of resolutions and agreements;
• SH - 7 - Alteration in capital;
• INC 24- Change in name;
• INC - 6 - Conversion of One Person Company to Private or Public, or Private to One Person Company;
• INC - 27 - Conversion from Private into public or vice versa;
• INC - 20 - Revocation/surrender of licence under section 8 of the Act;
• DPT - 3 - Return of deposits;
• MSC -1 - Application for obtaining the status of dormant company;
• MSC - 4 -Application for seeking status of Active Company;
• SH - 8 -  Letter of offer for Buy-Back
• SH - 9 - Declaration of Solvency;
• SH - 11 -  Return in respect of buy-back of securities.

The newly inserted Rule 10A further provides the following-

• The Registrar of the CPC shall examine or cause to be examined every application or e-Form or document required or authorized to be filed or delivered for approval, registration or taking on record by the Registrar..
• The Registrar shall take a decision on the application, e-forms or documents within 30 days from the date of its filing excluding the cases in which an approval of the Central Government or the Regional Director or any other competent authority is required.
• The new Rule 10Ais also applicable to the examination of application, e-Forms or documents under this rule.
• The Registrar of the CPC shall exercise jurisdiction all over India in respect of the examination of above forms filed. 
• All the applications, e-Forms or documents shall be examined and decided by the Registrar of the Central Processing Center.

The forms shall be processing a time bound and faceless manner. Processing of applications at CRC and C-PACE also does not require any physical interaction with the stakeholders.   CPC will ensure speedy processing of applications and forms filed for incorporation, closure and for meeting regulatory requirements so that the companies are incorporated, closed, can alter and raise capital, and are able to complete their various compliances under the corporate laws with ease.  Now on wards jurisdictional Registrar of Companies will have to focus more on their core functions of inquiries, inspection and investigation for ensuring robust corporate governance.

From 16.02.2024, 12 forms/applications as listed above shall be processed at CPC, followed by other forms from 01.04.2024 onward. Later, forms/applications filed under LLP Act are also proposed to be centralised. Based on filing trends, it is expected that about 2.50 lakh forms will be processed through CPC annually, once it is fully operational.