The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has moved a step forward by centralising the strike off process of companies with the establishment of the Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE).  The establishment of the C-PACE will help to reduce the stress on the Registry along with keeping the registry clean besides availability of more meaningful data to the stakeholders. The C-PACE will also benefit the stakeholders by providing a hassle-free filing, timely and process-bound striking off their company’s names from the Register.  The setting up of the C-PACE I part of the several measures taken by MCA in the recent past towards Ease of Doing Business and ease of exit for the Companies.

The C-PACE institution, established under sub-section (1) of section 396, shall be in operation through the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for the purposes of exercising functional jurisdiction of processing and disposal of applications.

The Office of C-PACE was inaugurated on 1^st May 2023 by Shri R.K. Dalmia, Director, Inspection & Investigation, MCA. Shri Harihara Sahoo, ICLS, has been appointed as first Registrar of the office of C-PACE. The C-PACE office will work under the supervision/administration of Director General of Corporate Affairs. (DGCoA), New Delhi.

ABOUT C-PACE

C-PACE was established vide MCA Notification No. S.O. 1269(E) dated 17^th March 2023 which shall be situated at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), 7^th Floor, Plot No. 6,7,8, Sector 5, IMT Manesar, District Gurgaon (Haryana), Pin Code – 122050

Subsequently vide notification No.G.S.R. 298(E) dated 17^th April 2023, Ministry amended the companies (Removal of Names of Companies from the Register of Companies) Rules, 2023 which has come in effect from 1^st May, 2023.

Centralised strike-off processing streamlines company name removal and enforces process-bound, timely disposal of strike-off applications. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs established the Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) under section 396(1) to centralise and expedite removal of company names from the register, operating through Registrars of Companies under the Director General of Corporate Affairs to process and dispose of strike-off applications in a timely, process-bound manner.