The Disciplinary Committee (DC) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) recently reprimanded Chartered Accountant (CA) Alok Kumar Mittal for alleged reckless certification and filing of Form 23AC.
The subject case is related to a complaint wherein, the allegation is that the Respondent certified Form 23AC of MIS Pacific Spirits Private Limited for the financial year ended 2012-2013 certifying that “It is hereby certified that I have verified the above particulars (including attachments) from the audited financial statements of Pacific Spirits Pvt Ltd and found them to be true and correct. I further certify that all required attachment(s) have been completely attached to this form”.
Since no Director’s Report and Auditor’s Report (except the Annexure to the Auditor’s Report) were attached to form 23AC, certified by the Chartered Accountant, the certification by the of the Form 23 AC was alleged to be false and reckless.
The CA, represented himself in person and admitted the mistake and submitted that Auditor’s & Director’s reports were inadvertently not filed along with form 23AC with Registrar of Companies ROC by his assistant; and stated that addendum was filed with ROC before the date of filing of instant complaint with the ICAI.
The DC noted that the Respondent during the hearing had admitted that it was an inadvertent and unintentional error on his part; which has caused e- filing of Form 23AC of the Company for the financial year 2012-2013 without attaching Director’s Report and Auditor’s Report. He stated that the complete set of documents were given to his assistant, however, he had scanned only the balance sheet and filed the same.
After considering all the facts and circumstances of the case, the Committee arrived at the decision that the Respondent is Guilty for the lone aspect that he did not exercise due diligence as envisaged under Item (7) of Part I of the Second Schedule to the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.
Thus, the Disciplinary Committee ordered that the Chartered Accountant, Alok Kumar Mittal be reprimanded.
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