DIR-3 KYC in India: the three-year rule, due dates and DIN reactivation.

What changed on 31 March 2026

Until March 2026, every DIN holder had to file DIR-3 KYC each year by 30 September, and a missed filing meant a deactivated DIN and a Rs. 5,000 fee to restore it. Most directors filed the same unchanged details year after year.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs replaced that system through the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2025, notified as G.S.R. 943(E) on 31 December 2025 and in force from 31 March 2026. The amendment substitutes Rule 12A of the 2014 Rules. Three things changed:

• Frequency. Under the new Rule 12A(1), every individual holding a DIN as on 31 March of a financial year files the KYC "on or before the 30th June of the immediately following every third consecutive financial year". In practice, once in three years.
• Due date. The deadline moves from 30 September to 30 June.
• One form. The old e-form DIR-3 KYC and the DIR-3 KYC-Web service are merged into a single Form DIR-3 KYC Web, which now handles periodic KYC, updates and reactivation.

Rule 12A(2) adds a separate obligation: any change in your personal mobile number, email address or residential address must be reported in the same form within 30 days of the change.

The fees followed a few weeks later, through the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Amendment Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 300(E), 21 April 2026).

Who has to file

The obligation attaches to the DIN, not to a board seat. If you hold a DIN as on 31 March of a financial year, Rule 12A applies to you. That includes:

• directors of private and public companies, One Person Companies and Section 8 companies;
• designated partners of LLPs, whose identification number is a DIN;
• people who have resigned from every board but never surrendered their DIN;
• foreign nationals who hold a DIN.

The third group is where deactivations usually come from. Someone leaves a startup, stops thinking of themselves as a director, and learns years later that the DIN was deactivated when a new company tries to appoint them. A resignation ends the directorship. It does not end the KYC obligation on the DIN.

When your next KYC is due

The three-year cycle runs from the financial year in which the DIN was allotted, or for existing holders, from the year of the last KYC under the old system. The MCA's own illustrations give the following:

One detail catches people out. Filing an update in the middle of a cycle does not restart the three-year clock. The MCA's example is a DIN allotted on 1 January 2026 whose holder updates their contact details in FY 2027-28: the next periodic KYC is still due between April and June 2029, reckoned from FY 2025-26. So an update filing is not a substitute for the periodic one when its year comes round.

The MCA portal shows the KYC status against each DIN. Before relying on any table, including this one, check yours there.

Fees after the 2026 amendment

The Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Amendment Rules, 2026 set three fee levels for Form DIR-3 KYC Web:

The Rs. 5,000 is a flat amount per DIN. It does not grow with the delay the way the Rs. 100 per day additional fee does for company forms under Section 403. If you need to change more than one detail, report them together in a single filing rather than paying Rs. 500 for each.

Changing your mobile number, email or address

Rule 12A(2) requires the change to be reported within 30 days. Two practical points:

• The mobile number and email must be your own. They are verified by one-time passwords at the time of filing, so a company secretary's or an accountant's contact details will not work, and you will need access to both when the form is filed.
• A routine periodic KYC with no change in details is verified through those OTPs alone. An update or a reactivation needs more: your digital signature (DSC) and certification of the form by a practising Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary or Cost Accountant.

If your DSC has expired, renew it before you start; the form cannot be signed without it.

If your DIN has been deactivated

When KYC is not filed in time, the MCA system marks the DIN "Deactivated due to non-filing of DIR-3 KYC". The appointment is not cancelled and you remain a director on paper. What stops is everything that needs the DIN to be active:

• you cannot be appointed to a new board;
• forms that need your DIN or your digital signature as a director, such as AOC-4 or MGT-7, cannot go through;
• if you are the director who signs the company's MCA forms, its filings wait on you, and the Rs. 100 per day additional fee keeps running on any that are already late.

To restore it:

1. Renew your DSC if it has lapsed, and keep your personal mobile and email to hand for the OTPs.
2. Keep proof of identity and address ready, since the form asks for both to be attached.
3. File Form DIR-3 KYC Web on the MCA portal, selecting reactivation as the purpose.
4. Have the form certified by a practising CA, CS or CMA and signed with your DSC.
5. Pay the Rs. 5,000 fee.

Once the form is approved, the DIN is restored and pending company filings can be signed again. Any additional fee that accumulated on the company's forms in the meantime is not waived.

One transitional point: KYC forms that were saved as drafts, or left pending for DSC upload and payment, before the new rules started were cancelled by the MCA. If you began a filing in early 2026 and never completed it, start again with the new form.

Deactivation is not disqualification

These two are often confused, and the difference matters.

Deactivation is a status on the DIN that follows a missed KYC. It is cured by filing the form and paying the fee.

Disqualification arises under Section 164(2) of the Companies Act, 2013. A person who is or has been a director of a company that has not filed its financial statements or annual returns for a continuous period of three financial years cannot be reappointed as a director of that company, or appointed in any other company, for five years. It has nothing to do with personal KYC. Filing DIR-3 KYC Web does not lift a disqualification; the route there runs through the company's pending filings and, where needed, the courts.

A director of a defaulting company can face both at once. Fix the KYC first, because without an active DIN you cannot sign the company forms that address the larger problem.

Common mistakes

• Still diarising 30 September. The date is now 30 June, and only in your cycle year.
• Assuming an update filing resets the three-year cycle. It does not.
• Using a professional's or the company's mobile number and email in the form.
• Forgetting a DIN from a company you left years ago.
• Mixing up DIN deactivation with Section 164(2) disqualification, and expecting a KYC filing to fix both.

Frequently asked questions

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Related reading

• ROC Compliance Calendar, FY 2026-27: the company filings that sit alongside director KYC, with due dates and Section 403 late fees.
• Regulatory & Secretarial Compliance: the broader practice area this guide sits under.
• Founders Agreement in India: what co-founders should settle in writing, including who holds which board seat.
• All Practice Areas