What a company's status actually means — Active, Strike Off, Dormant
A company's status on the register is one word that changes everything about whether you should sign with them. Here is what each one means, and what to do when you see it.
Pradeep Vanga ·
Before you sign a contract, pay an invoice, accept a job offer or hand over a deposit, there is one field worth checking that takes seconds and costs nothing: the company’s status on the register.
It is a single word, and it is decisive. A company can have a polished website, an active sales team and a plausible office address while being, in law, no longer a company at all.
The statuses you will actually see
Active. The company exists and is on the register. Note what this does not mean: it is not a statement that the company is trading, solvent, or filing on time. Active is a legal status, not a health check.
Strike Off / Struck Off. The company has been removed from the register and has ceased to legally exist. This happens when a company stops filing for a sustained period, never commenced business, or applied to be closed. Its assets are frozen and it cannot lawfully transact, sell or transfer anything.
Under Process of Striking Off. The removal is underway but not complete. This is a company on its way out, and the practical reading is close to Struck Off.
Dormant. The company applied for and was granted dormant status — a formal way of remaining in existence while inactive. Unlike Strike Off this is a deliberate, compliant choice, but a dormant company is by definition not trading.
Amalgamated / Dissolved / Liquidated. The company ended by a specific legal route rather than administrative removal. Whoever you were dealing with is now someone else, or no one.
What to do when you see each one
| Status | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Active | Proceed, and keep checking — status says nothing about filings or solvency |
| Strike Off | Stop. There is no legal entity to contract with |
| Under Process of Striking Off | Stop and ask directly what is happening |
| Dormant | Ask why. A dormant company should not be invoicing you |
| Amalgamated / Dissolved | Establish which entity you are actually dealing with now |
The trap: Active is not a clean bill of health
This is where most quick checks go wrong. People look up a company, see Active, and treat the question as closed.
Active only means the registrar has not removed it. A company can be Active while having filed no accounts for three years, having charges outstanding against every asset it owns, and having had every original director resign. None of that shows up in the status field.
So status is the first check, not the only one. Once it reads Active, the questions that actually carry risk are:
- Is it filing? A gap in annual filings is the most reliable early signal that something is wrong, and it is visible from which filings exist.
- What does it earn? In the audited accounts attached to the annual filing — see how to find a private company’s revenue.
- Who runs it now? Director appointments and resignations are filed with dates, so the board’s history is readable in sequence.
- What has it pledged? Charges over assets are registered, and an unreleased charge from years ago is a common and expensive surprise.
Check the status, not the story
The register is the only place where a company’s legal existence is a matter of record rather than of presentation. Checking it is free and takes one search — so there is no good reason to take a counterparty’s word for it.
You can look up any Indian company or LLP on Entiva at no cost and see its status, CIN, incorporation date and state straight away. When the answer is Active and you need to know what is behind it, the filings are a step away.