For not following legal rules after resigning as an auditor, a Rs. 50,000 penalty against Chartered Accountant (CA) Vijay Bora has been upheld by the Regional Director (Eastern Region) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
The case pertains to CA Vijay Bora of M/s Doogar & Associates, a chartered accountancy firm based in Mumbai. He served as the auditor for Maheep Marketing Pvt. Ltd., a company incorporated in West Bengal.
Under Section 140(2) of the Companies Act, 2013, any auditor who resigns is legally required to notify the Registrar of Companies (ROC) within a prescribed timeframe.
After the resignation of CA Vijay Bora, he did not file the required statement, as per the ROC. Therefore, in January 2023, a notice was issued before him, though no response was obtained.
Thereafter, the ROC on July 31, 2023, passed an order and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 for forgetting to comply with the norms.
On October 10, 2023, Chartered Accountant (CA) Vijay Bora, in an appeal, said that the penalty must be cancelled. Between February 2024 and May 2025, multiple hearing dates were designated, but his representative kept requesting adjournments. On May 5, the final hearing was conducted.
In the hearing, the representative of the auditor was not able to elaborate on the reason for cancelling the penalty or establish that the original order had any regulatory error.
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For revising the decision of ROC, no true reason was furnished; the Regional Director, Mr. Rakesh Tiwari, mentioned. He said that the penalty and the said amount are to be submitted via the auditor within 90 days.
As per the order, a warning is given where it said that action shall be taken u/s 454(8)(ii) of the Companies Act if the penalty is not filed in time. It comprises statutory action or additional fines.
Now the case is closed and the appeal has been disposed of officially.
The professionals and auditors have been reminded through this case to appropriately follow the compliance rules under the Companies Act to prevent these penalties.
