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Practice area 2 of 13

Corporate & Commercial
under Indian law.

Running an Indian company is a filing calendar attached to a governance code. The Companies Act, 2013 fixes the AGM under s.96(1), the annual return under s.92, financial statements under s.129 and s.137(1), director duties under s.166, interest disclosure under s.184 and related-party approvals under s.188 — and s.248 lets the Registrar strike the company off when it goes quiet. This hub links the governing sections to the nine ROC filings you actually have to diarise.

Last reviewed: 19 August 2026 · every citation on this page names the dataset it came from

What's in this hub
  • 11governing provisions
  • 11product capabilities
  • 4free tools
  • 2limitation periods
  • 5free templates
  • 15compliance deadlines
  • 5audiences
Assembled from what LexVio actually ships. Nothing here is a roadmap item.
What this area covers

Corporate and commercial work in India is bounded by the Companies Act, 2013 and, for LLPs, the LLP Act, 2008. The governance spine is short: directors owe the duties in s.166 (good faith, due care, no conflict, no undue gain), must disclose their interest under s.184 at the first Board meeting and annually, and must route related-party transactions through the consents s.188 requires. Auditors carry their own statutory duties under s.143, including the fraud-reporting obligation in s.143(12).

Everything else is a deadline. Section 96(1) fixes the AGM; s.137(1) with Rule 12 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014 drives AOC-4; s.92(4) with Rule 11 drives MGT-7/MGT-7A; s.139(1) with Rule 4(2) drives ADT-1; s.405 with the Specified Companies Order 2019 drives MSME-1 twice a year; Rule 16 of the Deposits Rules read with s.73 drives DPT-3; and Rule 12A of the Directors Rules drives DIR-3 KYC. LLPs run a parallel set — s.35(1) with Rule 25(1) for Form 11, s.34(2)/(3) with Rule 24 for Form 8.

Commercial contracting sits on top: the same company also signs MSAs, vendor agreements and SaaS subscriptions, and those clauses are where liability actually accumulates. Section 129 requires financial statements that give a true and fair view under Schedule III, so a contingent liability buried in an indemnity clause eventually surfaces in the accounts.

Indian law that governs this

The provisions, with their section numbers.

Each row names the dataset it was taken from — the seeded statute library, the compliance calendar's own statutory reference, the bare Limitation Act, or the DPDP research set. Nothing here was written from memory.

Act
Provision
What it says
Source
The Companies Act, 2013
s.96(1)
Annual General Meeting
Every company other than a One Person Company must hold an AGM — the anchor date from which several ROC deadlines are counted.
Compliance calendar
The Companies Act, 2013
s.92
Annual return
Every company must file an annual return with the Registrar within 60 days of the AGM (MGT-7, or MGT-7A for small companies and OPCs).
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.137(1)
Copy of financial statement to be filed with the Registrar
Read with Rule 12 of the Companies (Accounts) Rules 2014 — the AOC-4 filing obligation.
Compliance calendar
The Companies Act, 2013
s.129
Financial statement
Financial statements must give a true and fair view, comply with Schedule III and follow the accounting standards under s.133.
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.143
Powers and duties of auditors and auditing standards
Auditor powers, duties and reporting obligations, including fraud reporting under sub-section (12).
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.166
Duties of directors
Directors must act in good faith, exercise due care, avoid conflicts of interest and not achieve undue gain.
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.184
Disclosure of interest by director
Every director must disclose concern or interest in any company, body corporate or firm at the first Board meeting and annually.
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.188
Related party transactions
Prescribes prior Board consent and, above thresholds, shareholder approval for transactions with related parties.
Statute library
The Companies Act, 2013
s.405
Power of Central Government to direct companies to furnish information
Read with the Specified Companies Order 2019 — the half-yearly MSME-1 return of dues outstanding beyond 45 days to micro and small suppliers.
Compliance calendar
The Companies Act, 2013
s.248
Power of Registrar to remove name of company from register
The Registrar may strike off a company that has not commenced business or is inoperative.
Statute library
The Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008
ss.34(2)-(3), 35(1)
Statement of account and solvency; annual return
Read with Rules 24 and 25(1) of the LLP Rules 2009 — LLP Form 8 and LLP Form 11 respectively.
Compliance calendar
Free, no login

Tools that apply to this work.

Each runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded anywhere, and none of them needs an account.

Free tool
ROC Form Finder

The nine MCA/ROC filings a company or LLP must diarise, with the due rule and late-fee ladder.

Open tool →
Free tool
Compliance Deadline Calendar

Every recurring statutory due date, month by month, each carrying its own citation.

Open tool →
Free tool
Free Contract Templates

India-first templates, free to copy, modify and use commercially, without attribution.

Open tool →
Free tool
GSTIN Validator

Validate a GSTIN's checksum and decode state code, PAN and entity type — runs in your browser.

Open tool →
Deadlines that end the claim

Limitation periods that bite here.

Quoted from the India Code bare Act. The period is only half the answer — the third column of the Schedule, the point from which time begins to run, is what actually decides the date. Each entry sets both out.

Art. 137
Residuary application (any application with no named article)

Three years.

Art. 113
Residuary suit (any suit with no named article)

Three years.

Drafting starting points

Free templates for this area.

Free to copy, modify and use commercially, without attribution. They are starting points, not advice — have a qualified advocate or company secretary review anything before you sign it.

Corporate / Fundraising
Shareholders' Agreement (SHA) — India

Board composition, reserved matters, transfer restrictions, ROFR/tag/drag, and exit rights for an Indian private limited company.

Corporate / Fundraising
Share Subscription Agreement (SSA) — India

Subscription mechanics, conditions precedent, representations and warranties for a priced equity round.

Corporate / Founders
Founders' Agreement — India

Equity split, vesting and cliff, roles and decision-making, IP assignment, and what happens when a founder leaves.

Corporate / Equity Compensation
ESOP Plan + Grant Letter — India

Employee stock option plan and grant letter aligned to the Companies Act 2013 and the Share Capital and Debentures Rules, with the Indian perquisite-tax position at exercise.

Corporate / Fundraising
SAFE — Simple Agreement for Future Equity (Post-Money, India)

Y-Combinator post-money SAFE adapted for an Indian private company. For pre-seed / seed convertibles where you want speed and a valuation cap without a priced round.

Inside LexVio

The capabilities that do this work.

Every one of these is a real feature page with its own status — Live, Beta or Soon. If it says Beta, it is in beta.

CapabilityLive
Filing calendar

Every deadline that applies to your entity in one calendar, with advance alerts.

CapabilityLive
Regulator monitoring

SEBI, RBI, MCA/ROC, and GST circulars + filings tracked end-to-end.

CapabilityLive
Regulatory change feed

New circulars summarised and filterable by Act, regulator, and effective date.

CapabilityLive
Contract template library

India-tailored starting drafts for NDAs, MSAs, employment, SAFE notes, and more.

CapabilityLive
Contract scanner

Three-tier extraction cascade so PDF, DOCX, and scanned bilingual contracts all work.

CapabilityLive
Matter management

Group contracts, court research, and compliance items by matter.

CapabilityLive
Nexus — Search across your portfolio

Semantic + keyword search across every document in your vault.

CapabilityLive
Activity audit log

A searchable record of state-changing actions across the workspace.

CapabilityLive
Pre-built agents

Vendor-onboarding review, weekly compliance scan, GST reconciliation — ready to enable.

CapabilityLive
Scheduled runs

Cron-style scheduling — daily, weekly, or on the GST due-date.

CapabilityBeta
White-label reports

Apply your firm's logo, colours, and footer to exported risk reports.

Where it lives

The modules this area draws on.

Module
Compliance AI

SEBI, RBI, MCA/ROC and GST monitoring with alerts ahead of every deadline.

Module
Legal AI

Contract review, AI redlining, court research, fix suggestions and the Legal Health Score.

Module
Workflow Agents

No-code agents that automate multi-step legal, compliance and tax workflows.

Who this is for

The people who do corporate & commercial work.

Audience
Founders

Stop signing investor docs you don't fully understand.

Audience
CA / CS

AI for the contracts your clients keep sending you.

Audience
Small Businesses

Legal protection without the legal fees.

Audience
Enterprise / MNC

Custom AI. Unlimited seats. Your data, your cloud.

Audience
Law Firms

Deliver more client work with white-label AI.

Recurring obligations

15 compliance deadlines touch this area.

These are the statutory dates, not the extended ones — there is no automatic carry-forward when a due date falls on a Sunday or a gazetted holiday, and regulators grant relief only by ad-hoc notification. Every row states who it applies to; almost none of them applies to every entity.

MCA / ROC8
  • AGM — Annual General Meeting
  • AOC-4 — Financial statements filing
  • MGT-7 / MGT-7A — Annual return
  • DIR-3 KYC — Director KYC (now triennial)
  • DPT-3 — Return of deposits
  • MSME-1 — H1 (Apr-Sep) outstanding
  • MSME-1 — H2 (Oct-Mar) outstanding
  • ADT-1 — Auditor appointment
LLP2
  • LLP Form 11 — Annual return
  • LLP Form 8 — Statement of account & solvency
SEBI5
  • SEBI LODR — Quarterly filings (Q4, Jan-Mar)
  • SEBI LODR — Quarterly filings (Q1, Apr-Jun)
  • SEBI LODR — Quarterly filings (Q2, Jul-Sep)
  • SEBI LODR — Quarterly filings (Q3, Oct-Dec)
  • SEBI LODR — Annual audited financial results (Reg 33)
Open the full compliance calendar →
Questions

Corporate & Commercial — the questions people actually ask.

Which MCA/ROC filings does a private limited company actually have to diarise?

Nine, on the ROC Form Finder: AOC-4 (financial statements), MGT-7 or MGT-7A (annual return), ADT-1 (auditor appointment), DPT-3 (return of deposits), MSME-1 twice a year (dues outstanding beyond 45 days to micro and small enterprises), DIR-3 KYC for directors, and — for LLPs — Form 11 and Form 8. Each carries its own due rule and late-fee ladder, and the AGM under s.96(1) is the anchor several of them count from.

Do statutory due dates move when they fall on a Sunday or a holiday?

Not automatically. The calendar encodes the statutory date as-is. MCA V3, the GST portal, the e-filing portal, EPFO, ESIC and FLAIR accept filings 24x7, so regulators treat the calendar date as binding and grant relief only by ad-hoc notification. Section 10 of the General Clauses Act 1897 (the next-working-day rule) helps for physical filings with offices and courts, but should not be relied on for online tax payments.

What does LexVio do for corporate secretarial work specifically?

It monitors SEBI, RBI, MCA/ROC and GST circulars and filings end-to-end, keeps a filing calendar of every deadline that applies to your entity with advance alerts, and summarises new circulars into a change feed filterable by Act, regulator and effective date. On the document side it reads the contracts the company signs and groups them, with compliance items and research, by matter.

Are the free contract templates safe to use for a company?

They are drafting starting points, licensed free to copy, modify and use commercially without attribution — SAFE, SHA, SSA, ESOP plan and grant letter, founders' agreement, an India-compliant employment agreement and a DPDP data processing agreement. They are not legal advice, and stamp duty, registration and several employment obligations vary by state. Have a qualified advocate or company secretary review any of them before you sign.

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A map of the material, not advice on your matter. These hubs point at statutory text, free calculators and product capabilities. They are not legal advice, they do not create an advocate-client relationship, and they are no substitute for reading the bare Act as currently amended. Indian law is fact- and state-specific — stamp duty, registration and several employment obligations vary by state, and limitation turns on facts a web page cannot know. Take advice on your own facts before acting.

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