The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has written to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) regarding issues with the e-form MGT-8 following its integration with MGT-7 in the MCA-21 Version 3 migration. The ICSI highlights that the non-editable nature of the integrated MGT-8 form defeats its purpose, as practicing Company Secretaries are unable to certify compliance or report non-compliances for the 18 specified points. This integration also contradicts Rule 11(2) of the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014, which mandates separate certification by a Company Secretary in practice for annual returns of certain companies in Form MGT-8. The ICSI further notes that these concerns were raised during User Acceptance Testing (UAT) in 2024. Therefore, the ICSI requests that MGT-8 be delinked from MGT-7 and be made a separate, editable attachment to MGT-7 to allow for proper compliance reporting.
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THE INSTITUTE OF
Company Secretaries of India
IN PURSULT OF PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE
Statutory body under an Act of Parliament
(Under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Corporate Affairs)
CL: MCA: JUNE/2025 Dated: June 06,2025
Ms. Deepti Gaur Mukerjee
Secretary,
Ministry of Corporate Affairs,
Government of India,
New Delhi
Respected Madam,
Subject: Request for modification in layout of e-form MGT-8
Greetings of the Day!!!
At the outset, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) appreciates the initiative taken by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to migrate Company and LLP e-Forms from Version 2 (V2) to MCA-21 Version 3 (V3).
We wish to draw your kind attention towards MCA notification dated 301” May 2025 wherein the Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014 are amended and Form MGT-7, MGT-7A and MGT-15 are substituted w.e.f 14th July 2025.
In this regard we wish to submit that as per this notification Form MGT-8 is integrated with Form MGT-7 which is non-editable. With this integration and being Form MGT-8 non-editable, there are following important issues which need to be addressed:
a. In Form MGT-8 the Practicing Company Secretary is required to certify that during the said financial year whether the Company has complied with provisions of the Act & Rules made there under in respect of 18 points specified under the Form. However, with this integration the very objective of the Form gets defeated as the practicing professional would not be able to mention any non-compliances as the Form is non-editable.
b. Rule 11(2) of Companies (Management and Administration) Rules, 2014 states that the annual return, filed by a listed company or a company having prescribcd paid-up share capital or turnover, shall be certified by a Company Secretary in practice in Form No. MGT.8.
As with the aforesaid notification the Form MGT-8 gets integrated with MGT-7, this is contradicting with provision of Rule 11(2).
Further, we would like to submit that while doing the UAT testing in the year 2024 and ongoing UAT testing of Annual Filing Forms, the UAT testing team had highlighted the aforesaid points in respect of form MGT-8 and requested for making it editable, so that practicing professionals can specify non-compliances therein. The copy of communication between the UAT testing team member and LTI team is enclosed as annexure-I.
Considering the above points, we once again urge that Form MGT-8 should not be integrated with Form MGT-7. Instead, MGT-8 may be allowed as a separate attachment to Form MGT-7 along with making it editable.
We shall be happy to provide any further information or clarification that may be desired in this regard.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully
(CS Dhananjay Shukla)
President
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India
