Restoration of a Struck-off Company

When the Registrar of Companies removes a company's name from the register under section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013, the company is dissolved. Its bank accounts are usually frozen, it cannot file with the MCA, and contracts, property transactions and tenders in its name come to a halt. Section 252 provides the way back, and in both of its routes the application is decided by the National Company Law Tribunal.

The first route, under section 252(1), is an appeal by any person aggrieved by the Registrar's order, filed within three years of that order. The Tribunal may order the name to be restored if it finds that the removal was not justified. The second route, under section 252(3), is an application by the company, a member, a creditor or a workman, made before the expiry of twenty years from the publication of the strike-off notice in the Official Gazette. Here the Tribunal may restore the name if it is satisfied that the company was carrying on business or was in operation when it was struck off, or that it is otherwise just to do so.

Once restoration is ordered, a copy of the order is filed with the Registrar within thirty days, and the Registrar restores the name and issues a fresh certificate of incorporation (section 252(2)). Tribunals usually also direct that the pending financial statements and annual returns be filed within a set period. The firm prepares the petition, coordinates with the Registrar, represents the company before the Tribunal under section 432, and completes the filings that follow the order.