How to Inspect Documents Under Companies Act 2013 with MCA

Preface: This post was originally published in 2022 and has been updated on February 20, 2025, to provide you with the most current and accurate information.

Many times, stakeholders of a private limited company want to inspect important company documents to ensure transparency, verify the company's financial health, operations and management practices. By using the official MCA portal, you can inspect certain documents of a private limited company that are ‘publicly available’. However, more detailed internal documents may require government permission or shareholder status to access them. 

In this blog post, we shall explain the required steps for inspecting documents of a private limited company by visiting the MCA portal. 

What Does it Mean to Inspect a Document

Legally speaking, inspecting a document means to carefully examine a company’s official document, such as a financial statement, contract or corporate record, to verify its validity and relevance to a particular legal matter or purpose. Regulatory bodies or authorized persons often inspect documents of companies. 

One can conduct such inspections in the prescribed manner set by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Inspection plays a very important role to gather information about various companies no matter where they are set up. 

The documents referred to for inspection are those filed by registered companies/LLPs as part of legal compliance. Once approved by the respective authority, such as the ROC or Central Government, these documents become public records and are available for public inspection.

Inspection of Documents under Companies Act 2013

People can inspect and obtain a company’s documents from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) in accordance with Section 399 of the Companies Act, 2013. These documents include the company’s Certificate of Incorporation, Memorandum of Association, Annual Returns, and other publicly available filings on the MCA portal.

You can do MCA inspection of documents electronically, create a record of facts, verify the company’s Certificate of Incorporation, and obtain printouts or extracts of documents. However, this service requires payment of a prescribed fee.

Additionally, while Section 399 grants the right to inspect documents filed with the RoC, certain records, such as prospectus-related documents, may be subject to time restrictions. For instance, under Section 26 of the Act, documents supporting a prospectus can be inspected only for 14 days after its publication. After this period, you may require additional approvals.

Process of Document Inspection with MCA

The process of document inspection with MCA requires following several key steps. These steps are as follows:

Step 1: First, go to the official Ministry of Corporate Affairs website.

Step 2: New users must first create an account as a registered user on the MCA portal.

Step 3: Once the user registers, he/she has to log onto the MCA website using her/her credentials.

Step 4: After login, click on MCA Services > Document Related Services > View Public Documents.

Step 5: A checkbox will show up in which you have to fill in the required details like name, CIN, etc.

Step 6: Choose the type of document you wish to inspect and specify the year.

Step 7: Click on the submit button and pay an amount of Rs 100 (for company) or Rs 50 (for LLP).

Step 8: Once the payment is successful, SRN will be generated with Payment Challan. You can save the SRN for future reference.

Step 9: To check the status of the request, you must navigate to My Workspace > Documents> Click on Download to view the documents.

Step 10: For Annual Returns and Balance Sheets, you need to download AOC-4 and MGT-7, and save them to your system. 

Step 11: For Director-Related Documents (DIR-2), you must go to the “Change in Directors” section. A list of documents will be displayed there. Now, locate the DIR-2 form, click on it to download, and then save the file to your computer.

So, these are the steps for MCA inspection of documents of Private Limited Companies. These documents are mainly the documents pertaining to business incorporation, changes in directors, annual returns, balance sheet, etc. Any individual can inspect the documents online after the payment of prescribed fee.

Final Words

In this post, we explained the steps to inspect the documents of private limited companies on the MCA website. Under Section 399 of the Companies Act, individuals have the right to inspect a company’s publicly available documents. However, certain documents, such as Form 1A, Form 1B, and some e-forms like Form 21 and Form 61, may not be available for public inspection on the MCA portal. If you are unable to find the documents you need, you may have to file a specific request through the appropriate channels. If you require assistance, you can reach out to Registrationwala’s consultants.

Author: Dushyant Sharma

Hey there, I'm Dushyant Sharma. With the extensive knowledge I've gained in past 8 years, I have been creating content on various subjects such as banking, insurance, telecom, and all the important registration and licensing processes for various companies. I'm here to help everyone with my expertise in these areas through my articles.