Duty to notify Registrar: a single accurate consolidated Form No. XXVI filing can cure earlier non-notifications and satisfy the statutory duty.

Companies bear an absolute duty to maintain a directors register and notify the Registrar of any change within the prescribed period; the prescribed Form No. XXVI requires that, when notifying a director change, names and particulars of all other directors be furnished. Supplying a single, accurate consolidated Form that records all alterations supplies the information the statute requires and, where practicable, cures prior failures to notify each change separately. Consequently the remedy under the company-law notification regime was granted and costs were awarded against the company.

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Issues: Whether a single consolidated filing on Form No. XXVI containing all alterations in directors made after the last return satisfies the company's statutory duty under Section 87 (and the remedy under Section 249-A) to notify the Registrar of changes in directors; and whether the company should pay the costs of the applicant and the Registrar.

Analysis: Section 87 imposes an absolute duty on the company to keep a register of its directors and to notify the Registrar of any change within the prescribed period; sub-section (4) creates a penal sanction for default. Form No. XXVI (deemed part of the Act by Section 151) requires that when a change in respect of a director is notified, the names and particulars of all other directors be furnished in the form so filed. The company had failed to notify nine changes within 14 days and on a later date filed one complete Form containing all nine alterations and the particulars of the other directors as required by the Form. The Court examined whether the statutory duty to notify each change could be satisfied by a single, accurate filing that supplies the Registrar with the information the Act requires and noted that payment of multiple filing fees is not the measure of making good the default; supply of the required information is. The Court found that filing one complete Form which accurately recorded all alterations cured, so far as practicable, the failure to notify each alteration separately and thereby complied with the object of the statutory requirement.

Conclusion: Filing one complete Form No. XXVI containing the accurate particulars and all alterations is sufficient to make good the company's default under Section 87 and the relief sought under Section 249-A is granted; the company is ordered to pay the costs of the applicant and of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies.

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