The Central Government has, in a circular dated 15th January, 2021 introduced the “ Scheme for condonation of delay for companies restored on the Register of Companies between 1st December, 2020 and 31st December, 2020 under Section 252* of the Companies Act, 2013” for the purpose of condoning the delay in filing of forms with the Registrar. This scheme shall come into effect from 1st February, 2021.
In 2020 the MCA had introduced the Companies Fresh Start Scheme which expired on 31.12.2020 and is no longer applicable for various filings under the Companies Act, 2013. However, the MCA has received representations from companies stating that they had appealed under Section 252 of the Companies Act, 2013 against the orders of striking off the names of the companies before the NCLT Benches and the orders in pursuant to that were issued in December, 2020. Therefore, such companies were unable to avail the benefit of filing under the Companies Fresh Start Scheme by 31st December, 2020 and thus were liable to pay additional fees upon filing of overdue e-forms. In view of this, the present scheme is issued to provide benefits to these companies and the additional fees in respect of overdue filings will be waived off.
Key Takeaways:
1. This Scheme will be applicable to those companies who has filed an appeal under Section 252 of the Companies Act, 2013 in the respective National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) Benches, for the restoration of the name of the company which was disposed off between 1st December to 31st December, 2020.
2. The Last day for filing any overdue e-forms under the scheme is 31st March, 2021.
3. This scheme is applicable in filing of all e forms except in a case where there is an increased authorized capital (e-Form SH-7), and charge related documents ( CHG-1, CHG-4 , CHG-8 and CHG-9) which needs to be filled with the Registrar.
4. Nominal filing fee as required under the Companies Rules, 2014 is applicable and no additional fee is payable for the forms for which the scheme is applicable.
*Section 252. Appeal to Tribunal
(1) Any person aggrieved by an order of the Registrar , notifying a company as dissolved under section 248, may file an appeal to the Tribunal within a period of three years from the date of the order of the Registrar and if the Tribunal is of the opinion that the removal of the name of the company from the register of companies is not justified in view of the absence of any of the grounds on which the order was passed by the Registrar, it may order restoration of the name of the company in the register of companies:
Source : Ministry of Corporate Affairs
