In terms of section 3(1)(iv) of the Companies Act, 1956 a public company means a company which is not a private company and has a minimum paid-up capital of five lakh rupees or such higher paid-up capital as may be prescribed. A private company which is subsidiary of a public company is also a public company.

Test

An unlimited company is a company having no limit on the liability of its members. The members of such a company are liable to the full extent of their fortunes to meet the obligations of the company by contributing to its assets in the event of its being wound up. Thus, such a company does not carry the benefit of limited liability which is available to the members of all the other types of company. So far as the risk of the members is concerned, there is no difference between a partnership firm and an unlimited company.

• The limitation of an unlimited company is that it does not enjoy the benefit of limited liablity for its members.
• If the business to be carried on by the company does not entail much risk, then such a company has all other advantages of a corporate personality.
• An unlimited company can, at any time, re-register as a limited company under sectiuon 32 of the Act. The re-registration, however, shall not affect any debts, liabilities, obligations or contracts incurrred or entered into, by, to, with or on behalf of, the company before re-registration.
• Directorships in an unlimited company are not to be counted for the purpose of calculating the maximum number of 15 directorships which a person can hold in terms of section 275 of the Act.

If 51 per cent or more of the paid-up share capital of a company is held by the Central Government and/or any one or more State Governments, the company becomes a Government company. A subsidiary of a Government company is also a Government company. The holding of shares by municipal and other local authorities or statutory corporations is, however, not to be taken into consideration for calculating the extent of Government shareholding. A Government company may be a private company or a public company. Law requires minimum of two members to float a private company, one of whom can be the President or the Governor, as the case may be, and the other any officer of the Government. All Government companies are treated as public sector companies.

• Under section 620 of the Act, the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, exempt any Government company from complying with such provisions of the Act as may be specified in the notification.
• The auditors of a Government company have to be appointed or re-appointed by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India who can conduct supplementary/test audit also.

As per sub-section (1) of section 620A of the Act, ‘Nidhi” or ‘Mutual Benefit Society’ means a company which the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare to be a Nidhi or Mutual Benefit Society, as the case maybe. Thus, for an association or a body corporate to beocme a ‘Nidhi’ or a ‘Mutual Benefit Society’, the following conditions laid down by section 620A of the Act must be fulfilled:

• It must be a company as defined under section 3 of the Act.
• It must be declared to be a ‘Nidhi” or ‘Mutual Benefit Society’ by a notification in the Official Gazette by the Central Government.

A guarantee company is a company having the liability of its members limited by its memorandum of association to such an amount as the members may thereby undertake to contribute to the assets of the company in the event of its being wound up. Guarantee companies are of two types, viz., guarantee company not having share capital and Guarantee Company having share capital.

• Guarantee company not having share capital – A guaranatee company not having share capital does not obtain initial and working funds from its members, but from some other sources, such as grants, endowments, fees, subscriptions, etc. Institutions started by Government grants or donations from the public can be run by such companies.
• Guarantee company having share capital – Where initial working capital is not available through grants, etc., but once the company is set in motion, the normal working funds would be available through fees, subscriptions, charges, etc., received from the services rendered, a guarantee company having share capital may be formed.

Where a company :

• is formed for promoting commerce, art, science, religion, charity or any other useful object, and
• does not intend to pay any dividend to its members but to apply its profits or other income in promoting its objects, it may apply to the Central Government (now Regional Director, Ministry of Corporate Affairs as a delegate of the Central Government) for licence under section 25 of the Act for its registration as a company with limited liability without the addition to its name of he word’Limited’ or the words ‘Private Limited’, as the case may be.

Part IX of the Act provides an oportunity to an association of seven or more persons formed in pursuance of any other law inforce in India to get itself registered under the Act as a company limited by shares, or as a company limited by guarantee or as an unlimted company. Even a partnership firm having seven or more partners with a permanent share capital divided into shares of a fixed amount and duly constituted according to the provisions of the Indian Partnership Act, 1932 can be regstered as a company under this Part.

Part IXA added by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2002 provides for incorporation of co-operatives as producer companies and also for registration of inter-State co-operative societies as producer companies. Any ten or more individuals, each of them being a producer or any two or more producer institutions or a combination of ten or more individuals and producer instituations, desirous of forming a producer company having specified objects and otherwise complying with the requirements of Part IXA and other provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 in respect of registration, may form an incorporated company as a producer company.

• Select a category to download an eForm from the MyMCA portal (with or with out the instruction kit)
• At any time, you can read the related instruction kit to familiarise yourself with the procedures (you can download the instruction kit with eform or view it under Help menu)
• You have to fill the downloaded eForm
• You have to attach the necessary documents as attachments
• You can use the Prefill button in eForm to populate the greyed out portion by connecting to the Internet
• The applicant or a representative of the applicant needs to sign the document using a digital signature
• You need to click the Check Form button available in the eForm. System will check the mandatory fields, mandatory attachment(s) and digital signature(s).
• You need to upload the eForm for pre-scrutiny. The pre-scrutiny service is available under the Services tab or under the eForms tab by clicking the Upload eForm button. The system will verify (pre-scrutinise) the documents. In case of any inadequacies, the user will be asked to rectify the mistakes before getting the document ready for execution (signature).
• The system will calculate the fee, including late payment fees based on the due date of filing, if applicable.
• Payments will have to be made through appropriate mechanisms - electronic (credit card, Internet banking) or traditional means (at the bank counter through challan).
  1. Electronic payments can be made at the Virtual Front Office (VFO)or at PFO
  2. If the user selects the traditional payment option, the system will generate 3 copies of pre-filled challan in the prescribed format. Traditional payments through cash, cheques can be done at the designated network of banks using the system generated challan. There will be five banks with estimated 200 branches authorised for accepting challan payments.
• The payment will be exclusively confirmed for all online (Internet) payment transactions using payment gateways.
• Acceptance or rejection of any transaction will be explicitly communicated to the applicant (including facility to print a receipt for successful transactions).
• MCA21 will provide a unique transaction number, the Service Request Number (SRN) which can be used by the applicant for enquiring the status pertaining to that transaction.
• Filing will be complete only when the necessary payments are made.
• In case of a rejection, helpful remedial tips will be provided to the applicant.
• The applicants will be provided an acknowledgement through e-mail or alternatively they can check the MCA portal.

• When the business or the registered users access the MyMCA portal, they enter their username and authentication details - Password/ Digital Certificate.
• The user will be shown a list of eForm category-wise under eForm tab .
• At any time, the users can read the related instruction kit, available under Help menu, to familiarise themselves with the procedures.
• The users can then fill the appropriate eForm for the service required. There is an option of pre-fill facility in the eForm, where the static details such as name and address of the company will be pre-filled by the system automatically on entering the Corporate Identity Number (CIN).
• The users attach the necessary documents to the eForm.
• The users may avail the pre-scrutiny service of the eForm. The documents will be verified (pre-scrutinised) by the system. In case of any inadequacies, for example, if a mandatory column in the eForm is not filled in, the user will be asked to rectify before the document is ready for execution (signature).
• The applicant or a representative of the applicant will then submit the duly signed documents electronically.
• The system will calculate the fee, including late payment fees, if applicable.
• Payments will have to be made through appropriate mechanisms - electronic (credit card, Internet banking) or traditional means (at the bank counter).
  1. Electronic payments can be made at the Virtual Front Office (VFO).
  2. If the user selects the traditional payment option, the system will generate a pre-filled challan in the prescribed format. Traditional payments through cash, cheques can be done at the designated network of banks using the system generated challan. There will be five banks with estimated 200 branches authorised for accepting challan payments.
• The payment will be exclusively confirmed for all online (Internet) payment transactions using payment gateways.
• Acceptance or rejection of any transaction will be explicitly communicated to the applicant (including facility to print a receipt for successful transactions).
• MCA21 will provide a unique transaction number, which can be used by the applicant for enquiring status pertaining to that transaction.
• Filing will be complete only when the necessary payments are made.
• In case of a rejection, helpful remedial tips will be provided to the applicant.
• The applicants will be provided an acknowledgement through e-mail or alternatively they can check the MCA portal.

The minimum paid up capital for Private Limited Company: Rs.1,00,000/- For Public Limited Company: Rs.5,00,000/- This limit is not applicable to company having licence under section 25.

In such a case, you need to file Form 1 again but same can be filed only after 15 days from the Challan Date. On attempting to file Form 1 before the expiry of above said period, the system will give an error message "Form 1 has already been filed corresponding to the form1A Reference Number".

In such a case, you need to file Form 5 again but same can be filed only after 15 days from the Challan Date. On attempting to file Form 5 before the expiry of above said period, the system will give an error message "There is/ are pending Form(s) 5 in respect of the company. Please file this form 5 after approval of the pending Form(s) 5."