ROC Levies penalty of Rs.1.50 Lakhs for Not quoting DIN of Directors [Read Order]

The Registrar of Companies in the matter of Nestaway Technologies Private Limited has levied a penalty of 1.50 Lakhs for Not quoting DIN of Directors.

The company, Nestaway Technologies Private Limited (hereinafter referred to as Company), having CIN U72400KA2014PTC078018 was incorporated on 30.12.2014 and is presently registered under the jurisdiction of Registrar of Companies, Karnataka and the registered office of the company is situated at No. 1471, 13th Cross Road, HSR Layout, Sector -1, Bangalore-560 102.

It is seen that in response to an investor complaint against the company, the company had replied vide letters dated 14.12.2022 wherein these replies were furnished without the signature/ DIN of directors of the company, thereby violating the provisions of section 158 of the Act.

According to Section 158 of the Act, every person or company shall mention the Director Identification Number in any return, information, or particulars required to be furnished under this Act if such return, information, or particulars relate to the director or contain any reference to any director.

Subsequently, a show cause notice dated 28.08.2023 was sent to the company and its directors and thereafter, an adjudication hearing notice was sent to the company and its directors on 18.09.2023 pursuant to which hearings were held on 27.09.2023, 04.10.2023 and 10.10.2023.

However, no representation from Ms. Smruti Ranjan Parida, Additional Director was received. All the authorised representatives made their respective submissions. It was submitted that Mr. Karthik Prabhakar was a Nominee director and had resigned from the company before the date of the violation. A letter dated 16.10.2023 was submitted to this office by Mr. Jitendra Jagadev, Director on behalf of the company acknowledging the violation as an inadvertent and unintentional oversight. Further, it was stated that Mr. Karthik Prabhakar, Ms. Smruti Ranjan Parida, Mr. Kunal Karan, Mr. Srirang Yashwant Athaleya and Mr. Vasant Gujrathi were not the directors at the time of the violation.

As per section 172 of the Act, if a company is in default in complying with any of the provisions of this chapter and for which no specific penalty or punishment is provided therein, the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be liable to a penalty of fifty thousand rupees, and in case of continuing failure, with a further penalty of five hundred rupees for each day during which such failure continues, subject to a maximum of three lakh rupees in case of a company and one lakh rupees in case of an officer who is in default.

Therefore, having considered the facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions made by the company/ director / key managerial personnel through their authorised representative, in view of the above said violation of non-compliance of provisions of section 158 of the Act, in exercise of the powers vested under Section 454(3) of the Act, hereby impose a penalty of 1.50 Lakhs on the company and all the officers in default.

The company and its directors/key managerial personnel are hereby directed to pay the penalty amount as tabulated above within 90 days from the date of receipt of this Order and file Form INC-28 attaching a copy of the Order and payment challans. In case of directors, such penalty amount is required to be paid out of their own funds. The noticee shall pay the said amount of penalty online by using the website (Miscellaneous head) specifying the details of this Order and the noticee who is paying the penalty.

Appeal, if any, against this Order may be filed with the Regional Director (South East Region), Hyderabad within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of this Order in Form ADJ setting forth the grounds of appeal and shall be accompanies by a certified copy of this Order.

For Official Order Download PDF Given Below: