How to Check Company Details: Verifying Legal Status and Information

How to Check Company Details: Verifying Legal Status and Information

Before you wire an advance payment, execute a vendor agreement, or commit equity capital, confirm that the counterparty is real, registered, and compliant. In 2026, five free official portals — MCA V3, the GST portal, the Income Tax e-filing portal, IP India, and the EPFO/ESIC unified portals — let you build a complete legal and compliance picture of any Indian entity in under two hours. This guide walks you through each check in sequence, shows you what clean results look like, and tells you exactly what to do when something looks wrong.

Why Company Verification Is Non-Negotiable in 2026

The risk of skipping verification is not hypothetical. Advance payments wired to struck-off companies are ordinarily irrecoverable through normal legal channels. Contracts executed with directors holding disqualified DINs (Director Identification Numbers) are legally vulnerable. Most consequentially for day-to-day business: Input Tax Credit (ITC) claimed against a supplier with a cancelled GSTIN gets denied — and under Section 16(2) of the CGST Act 2017, you, not the supplier, bear the resulting tax liability plus interest at 18% per annum.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) struck off over 2.34 lakh companies in a single sweep under Section 248 of the Companies Act 2013. Thousands more are struck off, dissolved, or placed under liquidation every subsequent year. None of these status changes are automatically communicated to the company's counterparties. You must check.

The five-source framework below removes all guesswork from the process and takes less time than a single phone call.

The Five-Source Verification Framework

Each source answers a distinct question about the entity you are evaluating. Running only one or two of them gives you a partial picture that can mislead.

Run them in this order. MCA V3 is the anchor; everything else is cross-verification or additional commercial intelligence.

Step 1: MCA V3 — The Foundation of Every Verification

MCA V3 is the upgraded MCA21 portal, fully live since 2023. All company and LLP filings, charge records, and director information are searchable here at no cost. No login is required for master data and document index searches.

How to Run the Check

1. Go to mca.gov.in → MCA Services → View Company or LLP Master Data.
2. Enter the CIN (Corporate Identification Number, a 21-character alphanumeric code) for a company, or the LLPIN for an LLP. If you do not have the CIN, use the name-search option — the portal returns all matching registered entities, including those with similar names.
3. On the master data screen, confirm the following in order:
4. Company status must read Active. Any other status — Strike Off, Under Liquidation, Dissolved, Amalgamated — is a stop-the-transaction signal.
5. Registered office address: cross-check this against the address on all documents the company has given you. A discrepancy may indicate stale records, an unannounced shift of business, or, in fraud cases, a fictitious address.
6. Date of incorporation: verify this matches the "established in" claims the company has made.
7. Paid-up capital: useful as a scale signal. A vendor claiming to run a Rs. 50 crore operation on Rs. 1 lakh of paid-up capital deserves additional scrutiny — though capital structure alone is not conclusive.

1. Open Signatory Details to review current and past directors. Check whether the person you are dealing with is actually listed as a director. A person who resigned from a company three months ago has no legal authority to bind that company today. Also check whether any director has been disqualified under Section 164(2) of the Companies Act 2013 — this disqualification triggers when a company fails to file annual returns and financial statements for three consecutive financial years.

1. Pull the Index of Charges to see secured borrowings. A registered charge is not automatically a red flag — most operating businesses borrow. But look at: (a) whether charges marked as Satisfied have actually had the satisfaction recorded in Form CHG-4, and (b) whether any charge shows a stated repayment date in the past but no satisfaction filing. That pattern may signal a company that has rolled over debt without formal closure or is in dispute with its lender.

Reading the Annual Filing History

On the MCA V3 document index, you can see every form a company has filed and when. The two critical annual filings are:

• Form AOC-4 (Financial Statements) — due within 30 days of the Annual General Meeting (AGM). The AGM itself must be held within six months of the financial year-end, which means the AGM for FY 2025-26 (ending 31 March 2026) was due by 30 September 2026, and AOC-4 was due by 30 October 2026.
• Form MGT-7 / MGT-7A (Annual Return) — due within 60 days of the AGM, i.e., by 29 November 2026 for the same company.

For LLPs, the equivalent filings are Form 8 (Statement of Account & Solvency, due 30 October) and Form 11 (Annual Return, due 30 May each year).

Late filing attracts an additional fee of Rs. 100 per day per form under the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules 2014, with no upper cap for companies that are not classified as small companies. Two years of missed filings on two forms adds up fast — see the worked example below.

Step 2: GST Portal — Confirming Tax Registration and Filing Health

A company can be entirely Active on MCA yet carry a cancelled GSTIN. GST registration is mandatory for any supplier of goods or services above the threshold (Rs. 40 lakh annual turnover for goods, Rs. 20 lakh for services in most states under FY 2026-27 rules). A cancelled GSTIN on an active company means their invoices cannot legally carry a GST charge — and any ITC you have already claimed from them may be reversed.

How to Run the Check

1. Go to gst.gov.in → Search Taxpayer → Search by GSTIN/UIN.
2. Enter the GSTIN the counterparty has provided on their invoices or registration documents.
3. On the result screen, verify:
4. Legal name: must exactly match the company name on MCA. "Pvt Ltd" vs "Private Limited" is an acceptable variation; a completely different name is not.
5. Registration status: must be Active. A Cancelled or Suspended status means the entity cannot charge you GST, and any invoice they issue in their name carries no valid ITC — recoverable from you with 18% interest under Rule 88B of the CGST Rules.
6. Place of business: compare the principal place of business and any additional places against the MCA registered office and the operational addresses stated in your agreements. A mismatch between the invoicing state and the registered GSTIN state is a significant ITC risk (see Common Mistakes, below).
7. Type of registration: confirm it is Regular taxpayer and not Composition scheme. A Composition dealer cannot charge GST on invoices to B2B buyers; ITC is not available on purchases from Composition dealers.

Decoding the GSTIN as an Instant PAN Cross-Check

The GSTIN is a 15-character code with the company's PAN embedded inside it:

• Characters 1–2: State code (07 = Delhi, 27 = Maharashtra, 29 = Karnataka, 33 = Tamil Nadu, and so on)
• Characters 3–12: The entity's 10-digit PAN — this is the critical cross-reference
• Character 13: Entity number (how many separate GSTINs this PAN holds in the same state)
• Character 14: Defaults to Z
• Character 15: Check digit

Extract characters 3–12 from the GSTIN and compare them to the PAN the company has provided. They must be identical. If they are not, you have either been given a wrong PAN, a wrong GSTIN, or a document that has been altered. Stop and ask for the original certificates before proceeding.

Step 3: PAN Verification via the Income Tax Portal

1. Go to incometax.gov.in → Quick Links → Verify Your PAN.
2. Enter the PAN, the legal name, date of incorporation (for a company or LLP), and the mobile number as registered with the Income Tax department, or proceed with status-only verification.
3. The portal confirms: PAN status (Active / Inactive / Deleted), the name as stored in the Income Tax database, and the assigned jurisdictional assessing officer.

For a company, verify that the name in the Income Tax database matches the MCA company name and that characters 3–12 of the GSTIN are identical to this PAN. All three databases now speaking the same name and PAN is your three-source confirmation of legal identity.

An Inactive PAN is more than a compliance curiosity — it creates a direct financial liability for you. Under Section 206AA of the Income-tax Act 1961, any payment to a holder of an inactive or invalid PAN attracts TDS at the higher of: the rate specified in the relevant section, the rate in force, or 20%. If you pay a supplier Rs. 10 lakh and their PAN is inactive, you must deduct Rs. 2 lakh in TDS even if the standard rate would have been 2%. Failure to deduct makes you the assessee-in-default.

Step 4: IP India — Trademark and IP Ownership

This step is especially relevant when you are: (a) acquiring a brand or entering a franchise or licensing arrangement; (b) buying goods where counterfeiting risk is commercially significant; or (c) investing in a startup that claims proprietary technology as its core asset.

How to Run the Check

1. Go to ipindia.gov.in → Trade Marks → Public Search.
2. Search by the brand name (word mark), logo description, or trademark application/registration number.
3. Confirm the proprietor name matches the company on MCA.
4. Note the Nice Classification class covering the relevant goods or services — a trademark registered only in Class 25 (clothing) offers no protection for Class 9 (electronics).
5. Check the mark status: Applied For (no enforcement rights yet), Opposed (disputed), Registered (full rights), or Abandoned/Lapsed (no rights).

For patents, use the InPASS (Indian Patent Advanced Search System) available on the same portal. For literary or artistic works, the Copyright Office search is at copyright.gov.in.

A business that claims brand value as a key asset but has never registered its trademark is exposed to first-filer risk. If a competitor registers the same mark while you are in negotiations, the resulting injunction or rebranding obligation lands on the entity you just contracted with — and possibly on the business arrangement you built around them.

Step 5: EPFO and ESIC — Employee Headcount and Social Security Compliance

These checks are often overlooked in routine vendor verification, but they add two important signals: actual scale and labour-law compliance.

• On epfindia.gov.in → Unified Member Portal → Establishment Search, you can verify EPFO registration using an Establishment Code Number (ECN). EPFO registration is mandatory under the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1952 for any establishment with 20 or more employees.
• On esic.gov.in, ESIC registration is mandatory for establishments with 10 or more employees (in most states) with wages below the threshold.

A company claiming 250 employees but with no traceable EPFO registration is either misrepresenting its scale or is non-compliant with mandatory social security law — both scenarios are material due diligence findings, particularly for vendor empanelment, supply agreements requiring capacity certification, and any acquisition or investment context.

Worked Example: Verifying a Vendor Before Wiring Rs. 15 Lakh

Scenario: Your procurement team has identified ABC Engineering Pvt Ltd as a new supplier of industrial components. The purchase order is Rs. 30 lakh, with 50% advance (Rs. 15 lakh) before dispatch. Here is what a complete verification reveals.

MCA V3 check: Status is Active, incorporated 2019, paid-up capital Rs. 10 lakh. Signatory details show two directors; one resigned four months ago — only one director now on record for a private company, which is at the minimum permitted under the Companies Act 2013. AOC-4 for FY 2024-25 is filed. MGT-7 for FY 2024-25 is missing. As of 22 May 2026, the MGT-7 was due by 29 November 2025 — that is a 174-day delay, generating a late-fee liability of Rs. 100 × 174 = Rs. 17,400, still accumulating daily. The Index of Charges shows a bank charge marked as Open; stated repayment date passed eighteen months ago with no satisfaction filing.

GST portal check: GSTIN status is Active, legal name matches MCA, and the state code prefix is 27 (Maharashtra). However, the company's invoices have all been issued from a Delhi address. A search for their PAN across available state-code prefixes reveals no Delhi GSTIN. Invoices bearing a Maharashtra GSTIN for goods dispatched from Delhi are technically issued from an unregistered place of supply — your ITC on those invoices is at risk.

PAN verification: Characters 3–12 of the GSTIN match the PAN. PAN status is Active and name matches MCA. ✓

IP India check: The brand name "EngiForce" (prominently used in all marketing materials) returns no registered trademark. A third-party firm has filed a Class 7 (mechanical apparatus) application for the same name — status Examination Report Issued. Commercial risk: if that application proceeds to registration, your supplier may face an injunction and be forced to rebrand mid-contract.

Outcome: Two actionable flags (overdue MGT-7 with accruing penalty, unsatisfied bank charge) and one commercial risk (IP situation), plus one ITC-threatening issue (Delhi operations without Delhi GSTIN). Recommended action before releasing the advance: (a) request proof of Delhi GSTIN registration or ask them to raise the invoice from Maharashtra with correct place-of-supply coding; (b) escrow Rs. 5 lakh of the advance pending resolution of the charge satisfaction; (c) insert a brand-change clause in the purchase agreement. The deal can proceed — but on modified terms.

Red Flags That Warrant Deeper Investigation

Any of the following is a pause-and-investigate signal. Not every flag kills a deal, but none should be ignored:

• Strike Off, Under Liquidation, Dissolved, or Amalgamated status on MCA — stop the transaction immediately and seek legal advice before proceeding
• Two or more consecutive missing annual filings (AOC-4 or MGT-7) — possible shell company, imminent strike-off risk, or a management team that does not take compliance seriously
• Multiple director resignations within twelve months — a pattern sometimes preceding management disputes, regulatory investigations, or financial distress
• Cancelled or Suspended GSTIN on an entity issuing GST invoices — ITC on all invoices from them is invalid; interest of 18–24% per annum applies to any reversal
• Mismatched legal name across MCA, GST, and PAN databases — highest-severity flag, may indicate document fraud
• Invoicing state differs from GSTIN state with no additional GSTIN filed for that state — ITC risk for the recipient
• Unsatisfied live charges where the stated repayment date has passed — lender may have enforcement rights over the company's assets
• Registered office is a virtual address provider with no physical operations visible — acceptable for startups in the seed stage, high-risk for large advance payments
• No EPFO registration despite a claimed workforce of 20 or more people
• Trademark not registered where the entity's commercial value is substantially derived from that brand

Common Mistakes in Company Due Diligence

1. Accepting company-supplied screenshots as verification. Screenshots are trivially editable. Spend the three minutes to verify portal data directly; do not rely on what the counterparty shows you.

*2. Treating Active MCA status as a complete clearance. A company can be Active* on MCA with a cancelled GSTIN, an inactive PAN, and two years of unfiled returns. Each source answers a different question; all five are necessary.

3. Skipping the Index of Charges for routine vendors. An open charge means a lender holds a prior claim on the company's assets. If the vendor defaults mid-supply, you rank behind the bank in any recovery.

4. Assuming one state's GSTIN covers the whole country. GST registration is state-specific. A company registered only in Karnataka cannot lawfully issue tax invoices from a Tamil Nadu warehouse. If they do, your ITC is at risk.

5. Not documenting the verification with timestamps. Verification that is undocumented is legally invisible. Save timestamped PDFs or browser-print screenshots of every portal check and store them in the procurement file. Under Section 16 of the CGST Act 2017, the burden of proving a recipient's due diligence rests on the recipient.

6. Running verification once and treating it as permanent. A clean result in October says nothing about March. GSTIN status, MCA filing compliance, and director positions change. For suppliers accounting for more than Rs. 10 lakh per quarter in purchases, build a quarterly re-verification into your procurement calendar.

Key Takeaways

• MCA V3 is the starting point: confirm Active status, valid registered office, no disqualified directors, and at least two years of filed AOC-4 and MGT-7 before any engagement.
• A live GSTIN and matching legal name is the minimum GST check; also verify the invoicing state matches the registered GSTIN state to protect your ITC.
• Characters 3–12 of any valid GSTIN equal the company's PAN — use this as an instant cross-reference between the two databases.
• An Inactive PAN triggers 20% TDS under Section 206AA, making the deductor (you) liable for the shortfall if you miss it.
• IP India and EPFO checks are not optional for high-value deals; they surface brand risk and misrepresentation of scale that none of the other portals reveal.
• Document every check with a timestamped record — in a GST audit, it is the only thing that protects your ITC claim and demonstrates bona fide due diligence.
• Repeat the verification quarterly for high-value or high-frequency suppliers; a one-time clean result is not a standing clearance.