Company Revival

Governed by Section 252, Companies Act 2013, which provides two separate windows for restoring a company struck off the register. Under Section 252(1), the company itself, or any member, creditor or workman aggrieved by the strike-off, may appeal to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) within three years of the Registrar's strike-off order. Under Section 252(3), any person aggrieved may separately apply for restoration within twenty years of the date the dissolution notice was published in the Official Gazette, if the Tribunal is satisfied the company was carrying on business or in operation at the time of striking off, or that it is otherwise just for the company to be restored. Restoration is discretionary, not automatic — the Tribunal typically directs the company to file all overdue annual returns and financial statements and pay the applicable ROC fees and additional fees as a condition of the order. The NCLT's restoration order is then filed with the Registrar in Form INC-28, following which the company's name is restored to the register as if it had never been struck off.

Company revival is the restoration of a company that has been struck off the register of companies. Under Section 252 of the Companies Act 2013, a company that has been dissolved by strike off can be restored by the Tribunal on application — or the Registrar can restore it where it was struck off without proper cause. Revival matters because a struck-off company's legal existence has ended: its assets, its contracts, its bank accounts and its tax registrations are frozen in a legal state where the company cannot act.

Companies end up struck off for quiet reasons — a missed annual filing, a change of address that broke the correspondence chain, a director's oversight — and the consequences of the strike off are often discovered only when the company needs to do something: sell an asset, recover money, complete a contract, or defend a claim. A struck-off company cannot sign, cannot sue, and its property is caught in the dissolution. Revival restores the company to the register as if the dissolution had not happened, subject to the conditions the law imposes.

The cost of leaving a struck-off company unrestored compounds with the assets at stake. Property standing in a dissolved company's name cannot be transferred; recoveries cannot be pursued; and the company's former directors carry the administrative mess indefinitely. Revival is also time-sensitive — the restoration route depends on when the strike off happened, and delay narrows the options.

This service is for companies and their directors seeking to restore a struck-off entity under Section 252 of the Companies Act 2013. We review the strike-off history, prepare the restoration application with the grounds and the supporting filings, file before the Tribunal or the Registrar as appropriate, complete the conditions of restoration — including the outstanding filings — and restore the company to a live, compliant status.