What is UDIN by CS?
Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) is an alpha numeric number generated for identifying every document attested by the Company Secretaries in Practice. The UDIN provide an assurance that the document is genuinely signed or certified by a Company Secretary in Practice by facilitating verification.
Objective
The main objective of issuing the UDIN guidelines are:
- To allow the stakeholders to verify the genuineness of various documents certified by PCS
- To hinder the practice of counterfeiting of various attestations or certifications done PCS
- To check the compliance of the Guidelines issued by the Institute w.r.t ceilings on the number of the various certification /attestation services that may be rendered by the practitioners;
- To maintain the Register of Attestation / Certification services rendered by practicing members in an easier manner.
- To help in auto-prefilling details of Certification / Attestation services rendered by practicing members for renewal of Certificate of Practice.
Applicability
The guidelines shall be mandatory with effect from 1st October, 2019. ICSI has mandated all CS in practice to mention UDIN in the documents certified by them along with the Certificate of Practice Number. PCS may also voluntarily generate the UDIN for any other form, eForm and document which are not listed below and not mandatory as per these guidelines. Following are the Certificate, Report and Other Documents which mandatorily requires UDIN:
- Certification of Annual Return in Form MGT-8 under Section 92(2) of the Companies Act, 2013
- Secretarial Audit Report under Section 204 of the Companies Act, 2013 or tom material unlisted subsidiaries of listed entities (whose equity shares are listed) Regulation 24A of SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015.
- Annual Secretarial Compliance Report to Listed entities under SEBI Circular No. CIR/CFD/CMD1/27/2019.
- Certification under SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015 regarding debarration or disqualification of directors.
- Certification under Regulation 40(9) of SEBI (LODR) Regulations, 2015 regarding share transfer.
- Internal Audit of Operations of the Depository Participants or stock brokers/sub brokers under SEBI.
- Certification under Regulation 76 of SEBI for Reconciliation of Share Capital Audit.
- Acting as Compliance Auditor under third party certification/ Audit Scheme (Amendment), 2016 in the State of Haryana.
- Diligence report for Banks in case of multiple banking/consortium lending arrangements in terms of the circular issued by RBI
- Certificate under FEMA and Companies Act, 2013 issued while accepting the investment from a foreign investor by Indian company
Timeline of Generating UDIN:
- UDIN shall be generated at the time or seven days in advance to the signing of Certificate / Report / Form / Other Documents.
- UDIN which is not utilized after generation may be surrendered or cancelled by the PCS within 7 days of such generation.
How to generate UDIN?
The UDIN shall be generated by the member by following the steps mentioned below:
- A login id and password shall be created by the member by visiting the designated website.
- They shall mention the Membership Number, CoP No., Phone No., Email id, AADHAR and Income Tax PAN. No document is required to be uploaded.
- Name of recipient of the professional service, CIN /LLPIN / PAN No. of the client shall be disclosed at the time of generation of UDIN.
- The login id so created would be verified through a computer application.
- A random alphanumeric number shall be generated as UDIN by the system
- UDIN generated shall be shared on registered Email id of the concerned Member or through any other electronic mode.
- No fee is required for registration or generation of UDIN
Other provisions of UDIN
- Only Members having a valid Certificate of Practice can register at the designated website.
- UDIN can be generated only once the PCS has registered at the designated website as above
- Only the member certifying a particular document should generate UDIN;
- The authenticity of documents certified by PCS can be verified by Regulatory bodies and other stakeholders by visiting the designated website.
Consequence of default
The company secretaries in practice who defaults in generating UDIN shall be held liable under First Schedule and Second Schedule to the Company Secretaries Act, 1980.