Form INC-25 is not a form a company fills in — it is the fresh Certificate of Incorporation the Registrar of Companies issues, under Rule 29(2) of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules 2014 read with section 13(3) of the Companies Act 2013, once an application for a name change (Form INC-24) has been approved. It records the company's new name, its unchanged Corporate Identification Number, and the date from which the new name is legally effective.
That last point is the one people miss most often searching for the "inc 25 form purpose": the name change is complete and effective only on the date the certificate is issued — not on the date of the special resolution, not on RUN approval, and not on the date INC-24 was filed. Until INC-25 is in hand, every contract, invoice and filing still has to carry the old name.
What the certificate actually contains
Form INC-25 records the company's new name, its legal status (limited by shares, limited by guarantee, or unlimited), and its Corporate Identification Number, and it bears the signature and seal of the Registrar of Companies. It takes effect from the date printed on the certificate itself, not from any earlier step in the process.
It is issued digitally on the MCA21 V3 portal — there is no physical certificate to collect or wait for by post. A company can download it from its own MCA21 V3 login, or a third party can retrieve it through MCA's public document-inspection service for a small fee.
What changes, and what does not
The Corporate Identification Number does not change when a company's name changes — the same 21-character CIN continues to identify the company under its new name. A name change also does not create a new legal entity: the company's incorporation date, existence and legal personality continue unbroken. Only the label attached to that unchanged entity is different.
Read strictly against the bare-act text, section 13 of the Companies Act 2013 (11 subsections) does not contain a numbered clause spelling out that contracts, rights, obligations or pending proceedings survive a name change unaffected — unlike section 23(3) of the repealed Companies Act 1956, which had that express wording. That continuity is real and well settled in practice, but it rests on the general company-law principle that a name is a label rather than the legal person, and on how section 13(3)/Rule 29 are construed, not on one citable "continuity" subsection in the current Act. Treat any page that cites a specific "section 13(7)" or similar for this point with caution.
INC-25 vs INC-25A: two unrelated forms that share a number
Searches for "inc 25" and "inc25" routinely turn up Form INC-25A, which has nothing to do with a name-change certificate. The shared numbering is coincidental and is one of the most common sources of confusion in this filing area.
| Form INC-25 | Form INC-25A | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Certificate of Incorporation pursuant to change of name | Advertisement for conversion of a public company into a private company |
| Governing rule | Rule 29(2), Companies (Incorporation) Rules 2014; section 13(3) | Rule 41, Companies (Incorporation) Rules 2014 |
| Who issues/files it | Issued by the Registrar, to the company | Published by the company, in an English and a vernacular newspaper |
| Timing | Issued after INC-24 is approved | Published at least 21 days before the conversion application is filed |
| Approving authority downstream | Registrar of Companies | Regional Director, who orders within 30 days of a complete, unopposed application |
If what you actually need is to convert a public company to a private one, INC-25A and Rule 41 are the right starting point, not this page.
The two-year old-name display duty
A company that has changed its name must display the former name alongside the current one — on its seal, letterheads, bill-heads, negotiable instruments and business correspondence — for two years from the date of the change, under the first proviso to section 12(3) of the Companies Act 2013. That proviso attaches to section 12(3) as a whole, covering the display duties across its clauses, rather than sitting inside one single clause.
Once that two-year window from the date on the INC-25 certificate lapses, the company can reprint stationery showing only the current name.
What to update once INC-25 is issued
- PAN: the PAN number itself does not change — only the name on record needs correcting, filed as a PAN Change Request through the Protean (formerly NSDL) e-Gov portal, using the INC-25 certificate as proof.
- TAN: name-data corrections are filed as a Change Request Form for TAN through the same Protean TIN facilitation route as the PAN correction.
- GST: the legal name is a core field of GST registration. An amendment goes in via Form GST REG-14 under Rule 19 of the CGST Rules 2017, attaching the new certificate, within 15 days of the change; the jurisdictional officer either approves it in Form REG-15 or seeks clarification within 15 working days, failing which the amendment is deemed approved.
- Bank accounts, Import Export Code with DGFT, trademark records with the Registrar of Trade Marks, and employer records with EPFO and ESIC also carry the old name and need administrative updating — each authority has its own name-change process, so check the current requirement directly with that authority rather than assume one uniform procedure across all of them.
Where this sits in the full name-change process
INC-25 is the last step in a longer chain — RUN name reservation, a special resolution filed as MGT-14, then INC-24 seeking approval, and only then this certificate. CapEasy's guide to the full RUN-to-INC-25 sequence covers the fees, the Rule 29 default bar, and the timeline end to end; this page focuses on the certificate itself.
Primary sources
The dates and fees on this page are read off the statute and the MCA’s own published forms, not copied from other guides. You can check every one of them:
- Companies Act 2013, Section 13 (Alteration of memorandum)
- Companies Act 2013, Section 12(3) and first proviso (registered office / name display)
- Companies (Incorporation) Rules 2014, Rule 29 (Alteration of memorandum by change of name)
- Form INC-25 description — Corporate Law Reporter
- Form INC-25A / Rule 41 conversion of public into private company — TaxGuru
- CGST Rules 2017, Rule 19 (Amendment of registration)
Verified against the Companies Act, 2013 / LLP Act, 2008, MCA rules and circulars as of September 2026. Your exact position depends on your entity and any notifications or circulars issued since — we confirm it for you, and always recommend checking the official MCA portal. CapEasy is a private consultancy and is not affiliated with any government authority. This page is a guide, not legal advice.