Salient Features of Multi-State Societies Bill 2012 (Series 2)

Series – 2

Procedure for Re-registration (S. 7-10, S.59)

  1. File an application in prescribed Form alongwith a Memorandum of Association. The memorandum has most of the normal requirements. However following needs to be emphasized.

 

·       Name of the Multi-State Society has to be provided. S. 7(2) states that no name would be registered if it is undesirable, identical or too nearly resembles to anyexisting multi-state society, partnership firm, body corporate or a registered Trade Mark of any other person. However if a society is already registered under Society Registration Act 1860, then it will be provided with the same registered name. Question needs to be raised what happens if there are similar names registered under different states. Say a very common name for a society is ‘Disha’, which may be registered in different States and hence there could be several societies with same or largely similar names.

 

·        Details of existing or planned inter-state activities.

 

  1. Every society registered under this Act would need to add ‘Multi-State Society’ or ‘MSS’ at the end of its name alongwith the name of the State of its origin (S. 8). Perhaps this addition of the name may help distinguish two identical names.
  2. There is a provision for reservation of name whenever a new name is applied for or when a change of name is applied for by any person. This reservation of name would remain valid for a period of 3 months (S.9).
  3. Every society registered under this Act will need to publish following on all its official correspondence, invoices, web-site and publications.

·        Name,
·        registered office address,

·        year of registration under this Act, (please note if a society was earlier registered under Society Registration Act, say 25 years ago, this means that now it will be writing its registration year under the new Act – a loss of history
for some of the old societies);

·        registration number of the Multi-State Society,

·        name of the serving secretary, and lastly

·        a statement that the society is a Multi-State Society. (S.59)

Provision for Reporting (S. 11- 13, Regulation 2 under Second Schedule) 

  1. Any changes in the particulars filed during registration will need to be intimated to the Registrar within 30 days. The information apart from others would also include opening or closing of the branches / other places of business as well as expansion & cessation of inter-state activities.
  1. In addition to above, a Multi-State Society would need to file on annual report basis particulars of board members, as well as an annual report covering the nature and extent of inter-state activities.
  1. The Annual Report should include:

·        objects of the multi-state society and any changes thereto;

·        membership criterion and any changes thereto;

·        detailed statement of accounts,

·        updated list of members and of officers;

·        detailed governance and management structure, including all subcommittees and their members;

·        a statement on the activities of the multi-state society during that year;

·        number of meetings held by the Governing Body, members and

·        committees;

·        a list of all movable and immovable assets;

·        liabilities of the multi-state society;

·        payments made to officers and members;

·        exemptions under the Income Tax Act, 1961;

·        list of donors with details of donations received during the financial year;

·        all deviations and violations of the memorandum of association and rules and regulations of the multi-state society in that year;

·       PAN Card and details of the bank accounts held;

·        registration/permissions obtained under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010.

·        Audited accounts and audit report.

  1. If the gross receipts or expenditure exceeds Rs five lakhs, the annual report shall be filed with the Registrar within ten months from the end of that year
  1. All records relating to an annual report which is not required to be filed with the Registrar, will be preserved for at least ten years from the end of the financial year to which it relates. (This is rather interesting does that mean annual reports or underlying records thereof once filed need not be preserved.)

A new concept has been added called ‘Foreign Society’ we will cover it in next
series.