Is DIR-3 KYC Due on 30 September 2026? No. The Three-Year Director KYC Cycle Explained

For seven years every person holding a Director Identification Number filed a KYC intimation with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs by 30 September, and a director who forgot found the DIN deactivated and a five-thousand-rupee fee to reactivate it. That annual routine ended on 31 March 2026. The Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2025, notified as G.S.R. 943(E) on 31 December 2025, replaced the yearly filing with one every three financial years, due on 30 June, plus an event-based filing within 30 days of a change in contact details. Many compliance calendars still show 30 September; it is no longer a director-KYC date.

What exactly changed?

The amendment rewrote Rule 12A of the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014. Under the new rule, every individual who holds a DIN as on 31 March of a financial year must submit Form DIR-3 KYC-Web to the Central Government on or before 30 June of the immediately following every third consecutive financial year. The separate e-form DIR-3 KYC and the web form have been merged into a single DIR-3 KYC-Web. Between those triennial filings, a director who changes their personal mobile number, email address or residential address must file the form within 30 days of the change, with the fee under the Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014.

Who had to file in 2026, and who did not

• Due in the 2026 window: only a director with a deactivated DIN who had never completed KYC, filing with the five-thousand-rupee fee to reactivate it, and anyone whose mobile, email or address changed, within 30 days of the change. MCA's illustrations put no compliant director's periodic filing in 2026.
• Nothing due in 2026 or 2027: a director whose KYC was filed for financial year 2025-26, by the old 30 September 2025 date, with details unchanged since. Their next filing falls between April and June 2028.
• New DINs: a DIN allotted during 2025-26 makes its first filing between April and June 2029, and every third financial year after that. Any change of contact details at any time triggers a 30-day filing, wherever the director is in the cycle.

The rule's phrase "every third consecutive financial year" raised the obvious question of where the count starts. MCA answered it with illustrations accompanying the change: the cycle is anchored to the financial year in which the DIN was allotted, not to the date of the last filing, so a director who filed for 2025-26 skips 2026-27 and 2027-28 and files in the 2028 window, and an intermediate change-of-details filing does not reset the clock. Anyone unsure of their cohort should check the DIN status on the MCA portal rather than assume.

What happens if a filing is missed?

The consequence is unchanged: the DIN is marked "Deactivated due to non-filing of DIR-3 KYC". A deactivated DIN cannot be used to sign any MCA filing, which means the director cannot sign the company's own annual return or financial statements, and any form already submitted with that DIN is liable to be rejected. Reactivation requires filing the KYC with a fee of five thousand rupees. Because the triennial rule spreads directors across three different years, the practical risk has moved from forgetting an annual date to losing track of which year is yours.

Why the change was made

The annual filing had become a formality for the large majority of directors whose details never changed, generating a large volume of identical submissions each September and a predictable wave of deactivations and reactivation fees each October. Moving to a three-year cycle with an event-based trigger keeps the register current where it matters, when a contact detail actually changes, and removes the routine filing where nothing has. It follows the same direction as the Companies Compliance Facilitation Scheme, 2026: fewer routine filings, with the remaining ones enforced.

What a company secretary or promoter should do now

1. Record, for every director and designated partner, the financial year in which the DIN was allotted and therefore the next triennial window.
2. Delete 30 September from the compliance calendar as a director-KYC date, and add 30 June with the year that applies to each individual.
3. Add the 30-day event rule to onboarding and HR processes: a director who changes phone number or moves house has a filing obligation that does not wait for the cycle.
4. Check DIN status on the MCA portal before the AGM season, since a deactivated DIN discovered on the day AOC-4 is due costs both the fee and the time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2025, notification G.S.R. 943(E) dated 31 December 2025, in force from 31 March 2026, amending Rule 12A of the 2014 Rules; Companies (Registration Offices and Fees) Rules, 2014; MCA's illustrations on the triennial cycle as reported by Taxguru and CorpLawUpdates. Check the portal for your DIN before relying on a date.

BookMyTM tracks DIN status and KYC cycles for the directors and designated partners of the companies and LLPs it maintains, and files the 30-day event intimations when details change.