Over 9,000 new cases against cos with RoCs in 2013-14

More than 9,000 new cases related to companies law violations by 5,854 firms came up before the Registrar of Companies (RoC) last fiscal, with West Bengal accounting for highest number of such matters.
Noting that cases pending with RoCs are generally high, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called for "faster disposal" of matters by these offices.
The Committee in its report noted that the number of cases pending with the RoCs stood 49,500, as on April 1, 2013.
"Between April 1, 2013 and April 1, 2014, 16,015 cases were disposed of/withdrawn. However, during the same period 9,231 new cases were also added," the Committee said.

"Thus there is negligible liquidation of pendency and at this speed the number of pending cases is going to increase at a galloping pace," it added.
According to the details in the report, out of total cases added, during the last fiscal, as many as 5,140 matters involving 4,213 companies were registered in West Bengal.

This was followed by Orissa with 949 cases against 488 companies, and Kerala with 585 matters involving 85 firms.
Further, the Committee that disclosure requirements under the new Companies Act, would result in "additional filing pressure in the offices of the RoCs, thereby increasing the compliance-related regulatory action".

To deal with increased work load, the parliamentary panel has recommended that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs "upgrade the capacity of the offices of RoCs by filling up the vacant posts on priority basis, especially at the junior technical assistant/senior technical assistant level and equipping the office with good IT infrastructure".
"The Committee desire that the Ministry, on its part, should take steps to develop such systems in RoC offices that promote uniformity and consistency in disposal of applications across different RoCs," the report said.
It has also suggested periodic review meetings at the apex level "to ensure that RoCs function at a far more proactive level".

The Committee expect that tangible result of such monitoring be conveyed to them within three months of presentation of this report to Parliament.