Register DSC on MCA V3 Portal

The corporate affairs ministry has recently launched the third version of the MCA21 portal. Any person who is a Director of a Company or a Designated Partner of an LLP or a Professional like a Chartered Accountant or Company Secretary must register DSC on MCA V3 Portal to file forms. If a DSC is not registered on the MCA portal, the person would not be able to file any forms. As a Director’s or Partner’s DSC is required for filing annual returns and various other forms, it's important to register the DSC on the MCA portal after incorporation. In this article, we look at the procedure to Register DSC on MCA V3 Portal in detail.

MCA V3 Portal

MCA V3 Portal is proposed to be launched and deployed in phases and will include company and LLP modules, re-adjudication, e-consultation, e-book, Learning Management and Compliance Management System driven by data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. This third version of the portal is a key platform to submit the required documents and filings under the company's law and the Limited Liability Partnership Act, which will leverage analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)

Digital Signature Certificate or DSC is an encrypted electronic signature of a person. Digital signatures are stored in encrypted USB drivers and can be accessed only with a password. Class 2 DSC is required for filing various types of returns with the Government like annual return, income tax return, GST return, and completing other statutory filings.

Importance of Registering DSC on the MCA Portal

Any Director Designated Partner or Professional intending to file a form on the MCA portal must first register the DSC. Registration of DSC on the MCA Portal allows MCA to know the identity of the person who is using a Digital Signature Certificate and prevent unauthorized use. Note: If DSC is not registered on the MCA portal, Any eForm digitally signed by you for any Company being a director, manager, secretary, or practicing professional, will not be accepted on the MCA portal once Role Check is implemented, as the system will not recognize role associated with the digital signatures affixed on the eForm

Validity of Digital Signatures

Unlike PAN or Director Identification Number (DIN), DSCs are not valid for life. DSCs are usually valid for one or two years and at end of their validity must be renewed. Once a DSC is renewed, the process to register DSC on the MCA portal must be repeated to register the new DSC.

Who should register the DSC on the MCA portal?

As mentioned above, Directors, managers, and Secretary of the Company and practicing professionals i.e. CA, CS & CWA should register their DSC on the MCA portal, if they have not registered their DSC as a business user earlier. Note: All the directors, managers, and secretaries of the Company are not required to register their DSC on the MCA portal, only those persons who will be signing the eForms on behalf of the Company are required to register their DSC on the MCA portal.

Registration of Foreign directors DSC n the MCA portal

Foreign directors of Indian Companies are required to obtain Digital Signature Certificate from an Indian Certifying Authority (A list of Certifying Authorities is available on the MCA portal). The process of registration for DSC is the same as applicable to others. The following are not required to register DSC on the MCA portal:

Charge-holder or assignee.
Receiver or Manager in case of form CHG-6.
Liquidator
Person filing form for a Company to be incorporated/ registered (other than proposed directors and practicing CA or CS)

Important Announcement

User registration is not a pre-condition for registering the DSC on the MCA portal. However, if you are a business user and had already registered your DSC earlier, then you are not required to register the same DSC through the Register DSC facility.

Procedure to Register DSC on MCA V3 Portal

The following steps can be followed to register DSC on MCA V3 Portal. Go to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs' official website to register for DSC. Click on MCA Services and then select the Associate DSC option from the drop-down menu. Select the Appropriate Role of the person for whom DSC is to be registered.

In case of Director – Select Director to update DIN details (DIR-3/DIR-6 details are required) to register DSC.
In the case of Manager/Secretary/CEO/CFO– Income-tax PAN and DIN-3 Form details are required to register DSC.
In the case of Practising Professional - Provide details as per the records of your professional institute.

Note: Professionals of ICSI/ICAI/ICWAI having registered DSCs on the MCA21 portal with PAN and DIN numbers are requested to register the DSC with a role as Practicing Professional

On the next screen, Enter the details requested and the Details should be the same as in DIN/PAN/ professional institute records.
The system will verify that the DIN/PAN is valid and approved. If the DIN is filled incorrectly or DIN filled is not approved, the system will display an error message.
Provide all details and ensure that details filled are as per DIR-3. If the applicant has filed a DIR-6, then fill in the details as submitted in the DIR-6 form.
Click on the 'Next' button. The system would verify the details.

Note: If the details filled do not match with DIR-3/ DIR-6, for the reason that you do not have your DIN application details, you can get the details from the company in which you are a director.

If the details are correct, the system would prompt you to select the DSC. Click on the 'Select Certificate' button to browse and select the certificate. Please ensure that the selected DSC belongs to the applicant, whose particulars are being registered.
The system shall validate the DSC. If the selected DSC is already registered against the given DIN, the system will give an informatory message. If a different DSC is already registered against the given DIN, the system will ask if the user wants to update his/ her DSC.
Type the displayed system-generated text for verification in the box provided. Click on the 'I agree' button to agree to the declaration that the details furnished are correct.
Click on the 'Submit' button to register your DSC. An acknowledgment message will be displayed to the user. The user can take a print-out of the acknowledgment.