New Delhi, Aug. 6 -- India's leading law firms have cautioned that the presence of dormant, inactive, shell and financially-stressed companies on the ministry of corporate affairs' (MCA) register is weakening statutory filing compliance and the reliability of corporate records used by investors, lenders and regulators.

The warning comes after government data tabled in the Lok Sabha on 20 July showed that more than 664,000 companies failed to file annual returns and over 662,000 did not submit financial statements in 2024-25, even as the country's corporate base continued to expand.

Anuj Trivedi, partner at Dentons Link Legal, said the decline in statutory filings appears to be driven by multiple factors, including increasing compliance ...