Speaking on the occasion Shri Dhall said that the search facility was intended to provide information to the public on availability of a particular balance sheet or annual return with the respective Registrar of Companies (ROC). The inconvenience of going to the ROC office for inspection of a document which was not available in that office could be avoided in case the balance sheet or annual return was not shown as having been filed, he added. Shri Dhall said that this search would facilitate public to know compliance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, regarding mandatory filing of balance sheets and annual returns every year by the registered companies at respective ROC offices.

    Today’s Search Facility on Filing Status of Balance Sheets and Annual Returns forms part of the continuing endeavour of DCA to promote dissemination of corporate information available with the offices of the ROCs jointly with National Informatics Centre (NIC).

    Earlier, on April 4, 2001, the Union Minister of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley had released Search Facilities for Company Directory giving profile of each of over 5.8 lakh companies registered under the Companies Act at the offices of ROCs, Names Approved for Registration relating to names approved by ROCs and those in pipeline for registration of the company, ROC Fee Competition relating to computation of fee charged for various services such as name approval, incorporation of new company and filing of statutory documents, ROC Forms facilitating downloading of important forms prescribed in the Companies Act required for applications for submission to ROCs, and Status of Investors’ Grievances providing latest status in respect of an investor complaint registered with the DCA.