What is ROC (Registrar of Companies)? Full Guide
ROC offices implement MCA's day-to-day company registration and compliance work in each Indian state. We list all 27 ROCs, explain what each does, and show how a company is assigned to its jurisdictional ROC.
When you incorporate a company in Mumbai, you don't actually file the paperwork in Delhi. You file it with the local Registrar of Companies - the ROC for Maharashtra, sitting in Mumbai. The same is true if you set up in Bangalore (ROC Bangalore for Karnataka) or in Cuttack (ROC Cuttack for Odisha). MCA in Delhi sets the law and runs the technology, but the field offices that actually receive your filings, mark your status, and chase you when you're late are the ROCs.
This guide walks through what a ROC is, how India is split between them, and how to figure out which one your company falls under.
What a ROC is
ROC stands for Registrar of Companies. It's a field office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, responsible for registering companies and LLPs in a defined geographic area, processing their filings, and enforcing the day-to-day provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and the LLP Act, 2008.
Every Indian company and LLP gets allotted to a single ROC at incorporation, based on the state where its registered office sits. That ROC then "owns" the file - it stays with the entity unless the registered office is moved to another state.
How many ROCs are there?
There are 27 ROCs across India today. Some states have one. A few large ones - Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu in particular - have two. Some smaller jurisdictions are paired together. The list isn't fixed forever; MCA periodically reorganises it as filing volumes shift.
| ROC office | State / UT covered |
|---|---|
| Ahmedabad | Gujarat, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu |
| Bangalore | Karnataka |
| Chandigarh | Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh |
| Chennai | Tamil Nadu (north), Puducherry |
| Coimbatore | Tamil Nadu (south) |
| Cuttack | Odisha |
| Delhi | Delhi NCT |
| Ernakulam | Kerala, Lakshadweep |
| Goa | Goa |
| Gwalior | Madhya Pradesh (north) |
| Hyderabad | Telangana, parts of Andhra Pradesh |
| Jaipur | Rajasthan |
| Jammu & Kashmir | J&K, Ladakh |
| Kanpur | Uttar Pradesh (most) |
| Kolkata | West Bengal |
| Mumbai | Maharashtra (Mumbai region) |
| Patna | Bihar |
| Pune | Maharashtra (Pune region) |
| Shillong | Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh |
| Vijayawada | Parts of Andhra Pradesh |
| Andaman & Nicobar | Andaman & Nicobar Islands |
| Bilaspur | Chhattisgarh |
| Ranchi | Jharkhand |
| Dehradun | Uttarakhand |
| Sikkim | Sikkim |
| Assam | Assam |
| Pondicherry | Puducherry (legacy) |
For a clickable index of every ROC's company list, see Infyner's Companies by ROC directory.
What a ROC actually does
A ROC is the office you file your incorporation form with - SPICe+ for a company or FiLLiP for an LLP - and it's the office that issues your certificate of incorporation along with your CIN or LLPIN. Once you're registered, every annual return (MGT-7), every set of filed financials (AOC-4), every board change (DIR-12), every charge created in your name (CHG-1) goes to your ROC.
It's also the office that decides what status flag your company carries. "Active", "Strike-off", "Dormant", "Under Liquidation" - those are all decisions the ROC makes based on what you've filed (or haven't). When a company stops filing returns and ignores notices, it's the ROC that initiates Section 248 strike-off proceedings to remove the company from the register.
For changes inside your state, the ROC is the approval authority - name change, alterations to the Memorandum, registered-office shift within the same state. Cross-state moves go up to the Regional Director under Section 13(4) of the Companies Act, 2013.
Working out which ROC your company falls under
Three quick ways. First, look at the company's CIN - characters 7 and 8 are the state code (MH, DL, KA, etc.), and the state then maps to one of the 27 ROCs. Second, pull the company profile on Infyner - the ROC is right there in the master-data block. Third, run a master-data search on MCA21 by company name; the result includes the assigned ROC.
Common questions
What is the full form of ROC?
Registrar of Companies. It's the MCA field office that registers and supervises companies and LLPs in a given state.
How many ROCs operate in India?
27 today. They cover all 36 states and Union Territories between them. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have two each; some smaller states share a ROC.
Who appoints the Registrar of Companies?
The Central Government, under Section 396 of the Companies Act, 2013. Each ROC reports to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Can a company change its ROC?
Yes - by shifting the registered office to another state. That requires Regional Director approval under Section 13(4), and once it's done the new state's ROC takes over the file. The CIN's state segment is reissued at the same time.
Where to go next
Browse Infyner's Companies by ROC directory for an index of every ROC's company list. Or read about MCA - the ministry every ROC reports to - and the Companies Act 2013 they enforce.