Filed on Time

Most compliance failures do not begin with fraud. They begin with a missed deadline that nobody owned.

Filed on Time explains, in plain language, why compliance matters and what the law asks of every company in India. It opens with a Bhosari carton maker whose director identification number was deactivated, leaving him unable to sign his own company's cheque. It then follows real businesses through the full life of a company: a two-founder start-up in Baner, an auto-components firm in Chakan, a Kolhapur textile trader, a Hinjewadi employer and a Pune start-up raising foreign capital.

The book shows how Indian company law grew out of specific scandals, from the Joint Stock Companies Act of 1850 to Satyam, Sahara and IL&FS. It also shows which provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 were written to answer them. Then it turns practical, setting out the filings, registers, meetings and returns that keep a company in good standing.

What you will find inside:

• A precise definition of compliance, distinct from ethics, governance and risk management
• Incorporation through SPICe+, INC-20A and the obligations of the first 180 days
• The annual rhythm of board meetings, AGMs, Secretarial Standards and ROC filings such as AOC-4, MGT-7 and DIR-3 KYC
• Directors' duties, disqualifications and the 'officer in default'
• Books of account, the mandatory audit trail, CARO 2020, advance tax, TDS and the Income-tax Act, 2025
• GST returns, input tax credit, e-invoicing and the September 2025 rate rationalisation
• The four Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025, plus EPF, ESI and the POSH Act
• SEBI listing, disclosure and insider trading rules for listed companies
• FEMA reporting, including FC-GPR, FC-TRS and the annual FLA return
• The DPDP Act and Rules, pollution control consents, PMLA and corporate bribery liability
• How to build a compliance calendar, assign a named owner to every obligation and recover from default through condonation and compounding

The book also assesses the decriminalisation of minor defaults under the 2019 and 2020 amendments and the Jan Vishwas Act, 2023. It explains how these reforms change the price of non-compliance without removing it.

This book is written for founders, directors, finance teams, students and general readers who want to understand the rules that govern Indian business. It makes the case that firms which treat filing as a tax on their time end up paying for it later, at a worse rate.

S. Choudhary writes about the rules that shape everyday business life in India. With Filed on Time, Choudhary sets out to make company compliance understandable to general readers as well as practitioners. The book connects the history of Indian corporate law with the practical obligations that companies face today: incorporation and annual filings, tax, labour, securities, foreign exchange and data protection. Choudhary's approach rests on a simple conviction. Compliance is best understood not as paperwork but as a company's written record, one that others will rely on, so it is worth getting right and getting in on time.