Zurik Ltd and its Directors were charged with certain offences under Criminal Procedure Code and in the meantime, the Registered Office was shifted from Kochi to Trivandrum. The Form filed for shifting of registered offi

As per section 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, service of a summon on a corporation may be effected by serving it on the secretary, local manager or other principal officer of the corporation, or by letter sent by registered post, addressed to the chief officer of the corporation in India, in which case the service shall be deemed to have been effected when the letter would arrive in ordinary course of post. In case of companies formed and registered under the Companies Act, 2013, section 20 provides the mode of service. As per the said provision, a document may be served on a company or an officer thereof by sending it to the company or officer at the registered office of the company by registered post or by speed post or by courier service, or by leaving it at the registered office or by means of such electronic or other mode as may be prescribed. Further, as per Rule 35 of the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, 2014, a document may be served on a company or an officer thereof through electronic transmission wherein the term, "electronic transmission" means a communication- delivered by - facsimile telecommunication or electronic mail when directed to the facsimile number or electronic mail address, respectively, which the company or the officer has provided from time to time for sending communications to the company or the officer respectively; posting of an electronic message board or network that the company or the officer has designated for such communications, and which transmission shall be validly delivered upon the posting; or other means of electronic communication, in respect of which the company or the officer has put in place reasonable systems to verify that the sender is the person purporting to send the transmission; and that creates a record that is capable of retention, retrieval and review, and which may thereafter be rendered into clearly legible tangible form. In case of Mukand Kanaiyalal Patel v. Swarup Shree Yarn Private Limited [2002] 109 Comp Cas 413 (Bom) , a director of a company filed an intimation with the Registrar under section 146 of the Act regarding change in the Registered Office of the company and the Bombay High Court held that as the Registrar has not taken on record the change, any service on the changed office does not amount to service as contemplated by law. This gives us the clear impression that service of notice of complaint is a very, very crucial stage, which sets the ball in motion. In view of the above, the registered office address of Kochi is proper address for service of summon under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.