1. Find the company's CIN
Every company registered in India has a 21-character Corporate Identification Number (CIN), for example U74999MH2015PTC123456. LLPs have an LLPIN such as AAB-1234. You'll usually find it on:
- the vendor's invoice, letterhead or website footer (companies must print their CIN under section 12(3)(c) of the Companies Act, 2013);
- the vendor master in your ERP or Tally, or the vendor registration form;
- the MCA portal, by searching the company name.
Searching by CIN is more reliable than by name: names change, and many companies have near-identical names.
2. Check the status on the MCA portal
On the Ministry of Corporate Affairs website, open MCA Services → Master Data → View Company or LLP Master Data, enter the CIN or name, and read the Company Status field.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | The company exists and is not in strike-off or winding-up proceedings. |
| Strike Off | The Registrar of Companies (RoC) has removed the name from the register under section 248. The company stands dissolved. |
| Under process of Striking Off | A strike-off notice (STK-5 or STK-6) has been published; the company may be struck off soon. |
| Amalgamated, Dissolved, Under Liquidation, Under CIRP | Other ways a company stops trading normally. Treat these as red flags too. |
| Dormant (s.455) | The company has asked to be treated as inactive. It exists but should not be trading. |
3. Read the STK-7 notice
When the RoC strikes a company off, it publishes a notice in Form STK-7 in the Official Gazette, listing every company removed. The notice gives the date the company was dissolved and whether it was struck off by the RoC on its own (section 248(1)) or at the company's request (section 248(2)). Since May 2023, voluntary strike-offs are processed by the Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE), which issues its own STK-7 notices.
The notice is your audit evidence: keep its number, date and the page that lists the company. How the section 248 process works →
4. Make sure it hasn't been restored
A struck-off company can be restored by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) under section 252, up to 20 years after the STK-7 notice. Once the RoC records the NCLT order, the MCA status changes back to Active. So if a company appears in an STK-7 notice but MCA now shows it as Active, check whether it was restored before treating it as struck off. Restoration under section 252 →
Checking a whole vendor list
Checking hundreds of vendors one at a time on the MCA portal is slow. Struck-Off Company Check holds every company in the STK-7 notices from 2017 onwards and every company and LLP marked "Strike Off" in the MCA master data, 9,65,508 in all. Upload your vendor master from Excel, CSV, Tally or SAP and the portal:
- matches each vendor by CIN, then by exact name (ignoring "Pvt Ltd", "Limited" and punctuation), and flags similar names for review;
- shows the strike-off date, RoC, notice number and source page for every hit;
- flags companies that appear in a notice but are no longer "Strike Off" in MCA data, so you can check for restoration;
- exports the results to Excel for your working papers.
Your vendor file is read in your browser and never uploaded. Create a free account.
What to do if a vendor is struck off
Stop new orders and payments until you understand the position, and ask the vendor for their NCLT restoration order if they say they are still trading. For year-end reporting, Schedule III requires companies to disclose balances and transactions with struck-off companies. Dealing with struck-off vendors and customers →
Updated 19 October 2026. A general guide based on the Companies Act, 2013 and the Companies (Removal of Names of Companies from the Register of Companies) Rules, 2016, as amended. It is not legal advice; check the current text on the MCA website or with your professional adviser before acting.