The Department of Company Affairs (DCA) has issued a notification, effective from March 1, barring companies from shifting registered offices within a state without the permission of the regional director of the registrar of companies (ROC). The new provision under the Companies Act said, "no company shall change the place of its registered office from one place to another within a place unless such a change is confirmed by the regional director."

Incorporating this clause under Section 17A of the Companies Act, the government has issued a guideline of the procedures to be followed for carrying out such changes. A DCA press release issued here on Friday said:

"The company will have to make an application in a prescribed form to the regional director for confirmation and the confirmation itself would be communicated to the company within four weeks from the date of receipt of application for such a change." It said, the provisions of the Section would apply to those companies which change the registered office from the jurisdiction of one ROC to the jurisdiction of another within the same state.

As per the notification, the companies would also be required to file with the registrar, a certified copy of the regional director's confirmation for change of its registered offices, within two months' from the date of confirmation.