Professional Misconduct: CA rebuked by ICAI for Filing Form 23AC without attaching Auditor & Director reports

The Disciplinary Committee of ICAI recently chastises a Chartered Accountant named Alok Kumar Mittal for claimed irresponsible certification and filing of Form 23AC.

Findings:

The Committee’ noted that in the instant complaint, the Respondent certified Form 23AC of M/s Pacific Spirits Private Limited (herein after referred as the Company) for the financial year ended 31.03.2013 certifying that “It is hereby certified that I have verified the above particulars (including attachments) from the audited financial statements of Pacific Spirits Pvt Ltd and found them to be true and correct. I further certifl1 that all required attachment(s) have been completely attached to this form”. But no Director’s Report and Auditor’s Report (except the Annexure to the Auditor’s Report) were attached to form 23AC, so certified by the Respondent. So, the certification by the Respondent of the Form 23 AC was false and reckless.

The Committee further noted that on perusal of documents on record, the Respondent admitted the mistake on his part and submitted that Auditor’s & Director’s reports were inadvertently not filed along with form 23AC with ROC by his assistant; and stated that addendum was filed in Form 67 with ROC before the date of filing of instant complaint with the ICAI. The Committee further observed that it was a procedural lapse which was subsequently rectified by the Responded on 31-1-2014 which was well before the date of filing of Complaint(i.e., 31-03-2015) by the Complainant Department. In other words, the complete set of documents after rectification were available with the records of Registrar of Companies, before the date of filing of complaint by the complainant department. The Committee noted that the Respondent at the hearing stage had accepted his mistake.

Order:

CA. Alok Kumar Mittal (M.No.071205), New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the “Respondent”) was GUILTY of Professional Misconduct falling within the meaning of Item (7) of Part I of Second Schedule to the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 read with Section 22 of the said Act.

Thus, keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case as aforesaid, material on record. and submissions of the Respondent before it, the Committee ordered that the Respondent i.e., CA. Alok Kumar Mittal (M.No.071205), New Delhi, be reprimanded.

For Official Order Download PDF Given Below: