Name Reservation for companies suspended till 26.01.2018

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has suspended the e-form for Name Approval Application with regards to company incorporation. The stakeholders could make an application in e-form INC – 1, which is temporarily suspended from 6^th of January, 2018 till 26^th January, 2018. The said suspension is in line with the proposed deployment of the new scheme as MCA proposes to reengineer the process for Name Reservation and DIN Allotment.

Since the suspension of the e-form INC – 1, the concerned stakeholders are unable to file a separate application of Name Reservation for proposed companies. The stakeholders may either wait for incorporation procedure till 26^th of January or may choose to proceed with the alternate way.

What is the alternate way for name reservation?

The substitute to name approval application is filing of SPICe Forms where the combined application can be made for Name Reservation as well as Company Incorporation. The application should be accompanied with all the documents and proof required to be submitted for incorporation of company.  In the given SPICe forms, promoter can make application of approval for only one name, which will result into incorporation of the company.

The application under this route shall be made being cautious as re-submission of the application will lead to drafting of numerous documents from scratch. Also, the stakeholders are given only one chance of re-submission under these forms. Moreover, on rejection of the application, the government fees will not be refunded until another application for incorporation is filed by the promoters.

Pre-cautions for name application under SPICe forms:

• The applicant shall choose only one name in compliance with the related provisions. (Read: Mark Business Identity Wisely – Choosing the name of Company)
• The name to be applied should be unique and not similar with the names of existing companies or LLPs or trademarks.
• The significance of the name should be provided and submission of supporting documents to claim the name, if any, should accompany the form.

Recommended is to file the application under SPICe forms only if you are confident about the name to be applied as the re-submission and rejection hold tediousness of work for the promoters. If you are not sure for the name for the company, you can wait till deployment of New Name Approval Scheme provided under MCA proposes to reengineer the process for Name Reservation and DIN Allotment.

Resubmission of already filed applications:

If the promoters have already made an application under e-form INC – 1 before suspension i.e. on or before 5^th of January, 2018, the applicants are allowed to make re-submission under same form till 11^th of January, 2018. Thus, is you have already filed an application under same form, you should take the work of re-submission on priority to avoid application under SPICe forms.

Change of Name of existing company:

The already incorporated companies planning to change their name do not have any alternate way to reserve the name for temporary period ending on 26^th January, 2018. Here, the companies are required to wait till proposed deployment of Web-form for name application.