Director Identification Number: Sections 153 to 159

A Director Identification Number is the single identifier the Companies Act, 2013 attaches to a person who holds directorships, and it has to exist before an appointment can be made. Section 152(3) bars the appointment of anyone who has not been allotted a Director Identification Number under section 154, or any other number prescribed under section 153, and sections 153 to 159 set out the chain: the individual applies, the Central Government allots, the individual may hold only one, and the number then has to travel to the company and on to the Registrar.

How is a Director Identification Number applied for and allotted?

Section 153 puts the duty on the individual, not the company. Every individual intending to be appointed as a director of a company applies to the Central Government in such form and manner, and with such fees, as may be prescribed. A proviso inserted by Act 1 of 2018, section 48, with effect from 9 February 2018 lets the Central Government prescribe any identification number to be treated as a Director Identification Number for the purposes of the Act, and where an individual holds or acquires such a number, section 153 either does not apply or applies in the manner prescribed.

Section 154 puts a clock on the government side: it shall allot the number within one month from the receipt of the application, in such manner as may be prescribed. Section 155 then makes the number singular. No individual already allotted a number under section 154 shall apply for, obtain or possess another. Possession is named alongside applying and obtaining, so a person who ends up holding two is in default of the section even if the second was allotted without any misstatement.

Who has to report the number, and by when?

The chain runs individual, then company, then Registrar, and each leg has its own period.

Section 157(1) also carries an amendment worth noticing, because it removed a deadline rather than adding one: the words and figures "within the time specified under section 403" were omitted by Act 1 of 2018, section 49, with effect from 7 May 2018, leaving the fifteen-day period and the prescribed fees or additional fees as the operative requirements.

Section 158 is the widest limb and the least discussed. Every person or company, while furnishing any return, information or particulars required under the Act, shall mention the Director Identification Number where the return relates to a director or contains any reference to one. It is what makes the number the join key across a company's filings rather than a one-time registration.

What are the penalties in the DIN chain?

Three different provisions cover three different defaults, and they do not cover the same sections.

Section 157(2), as substituted by Act 22 of 2019, section 24, with effect from 2 November 2018, is specific to a company's failure under section 157(1). The company is liable to a penalty of twenty-five thousand rupees, with a further one hundred rupees for each day after the first during which the failure continues, subject to a maximum of one lakh rupees. Every officer in default is liable to a penalty of not less than twenty-five thousand rupees on the same continuing basis and the same one lakh cap. The asymmetry is on the face of the text: the company's figure is fixed and the officer's is a floor.

Section 159, as substituted by Act 22 of 2019, section 25, with effect from 2 November 2018, covers an individual or a director who makes "any default in complying with any of the provisions of section 152, section 155 and section 156", which is how the Act words the list. The penalty may extend to fifty thousand rupees, with a further penalty which may extend to five hundred rupees for each day after the first that the default continues.

That list leaves sections 153, 157 and 158 out. Section 157 has its own penalty in sub-section (2). Sections 153 and 158 have none of their own, and the residual penalty for Chapter XI does not fully close the gap. What follows is a reading of how these penalty sections fit together rather than text any of them states. Section 172 applies "if a company is in default in complying with any of the provisions of this Chapter and for which no specific penalty or punishment is provided therein", so it reaches a company, and through it every officer in default. Section 153's duty is on the individual, "every individual intending to be appointed as director", so a would-be director who simply never applies leaves no company in default, and so no penalty named anywhere in Chapter XI. Section 158's "every person or company" has the same gap on its person limb. That is a gap in the Chapter and not in the Act, because section 450, the Act-wide residual, reaches "any other person" who contravenes a provision of the Act for which no penalty is provided elsewhere, and it sits outside Chapter XI. Section 172 is set out at the register of directors and KMP, whose sections 170 and 171 are company duties and sit inside it cleanly.

Where the Director Identification Number shows up in a filing

Because of section 158, the number is present wherever a director is. It appears in the return of directors and key managerial personnel filed under section 170(2), in the consent filed under section 152(5) when a director is appointed, and in the annual return. For anyone reading disclosures across companies, that is the practical value: a person's name can be spelled several ways across filings and issuers, and the Director Identification Number is the field that does not vary.

Where this sits in the disclosure picture

• Appointment of directors under section 152 covers the sub-section (3) bar that makes this number a precondition.
• The register of directors and KMP covers the register and the thirty-day return the number lands in, and the section 172 residual penalty.
• Director disqualification under section 164 covers the grounds a proposed director must declare against under section 152(4).
• The limit on the number of directorships covers the section 165 cap that a single identifier makes checkable.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each stamped with its date and linked back to the exchange or regulator that published it. What any of it means for you is your call to make.