Indian Corporate Law Service (ICLS)

The ICLS is one of the group A services under UPSC cadre. A candidate who is aspiring to get into this service should attempt the UPSC CSE exam. 

The ICLS is a specialized and combined service that unifies the knowledge of all three streams – chartered accountancy, legal studies, and civil services. 

The job profile of an ICLS officer is that of high learning and knowledge earning wherein the officer gets to do something more than a typical government job. 

Apart from sticking to files for the entire job tenure, which may be predicted of any government job, the ICLS profile is much more specialized and sophisticated, taking into account the matters it deals with. 

The corporate law service was previously known as company law service. The main task of the ICLS officers is to ensure optimum utilization, implementation, and administration of the companies act. Also included, along with the companies’ act is the LLP act. 

ICLS officers ensure that companies file tax returns, implement policies in sync with government regulations, abide by government rules and regulations, and follow laws of the land. 

Any criminal or civil misleading activities are brought to the notice of the ICLS officers who then have to act according to the guiding references above. 

Aspirants must take up the UPSC CSE exam and clear all three rounds of prelims, mains, and interview. Successful candidates will be called in for the service based on their order of merit and the preferences they have chosen in the application form. 

Training offered to selected ICLS candidates

Soon after getting selected to the ICLS, candidates as probationary officers are given specified letters to call them on board for their training curriculum. 

Training commences at ICLS academy of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA). It is an extensive ten month program that trains candidates for the post of ICLS with theoretical, hands-on training plus specialized modules to prepare them for the job ahead. 

The ten month exhaustive training is very lengthy, complex, and tough. Candidates have to strive hard to know the ins and outs of the job and to take up practical exposure for their role. Here are some of the insights into what the training may look like from a candidate’s perspective:

• Indian penal codes of the government of India.
• Companies Act – history, current status, implementations, exclusions and more.
• Specialized corporate laws and amendments. 
• Partnership acts.
• Accounting, briefing of accounts, recording, and maintaining them.

After this phase of initial induction, candidates are then assigned roles at various administrative offices across the country to get the feel of the job and hands-on experience about what the role demands. 

Hereafter subsequent promotions, they may be transferred to upper roles such as administrative heads and regional directors. These come within the purview of the companies act, and the job transfer hence depends on the nuances of the legal framework. The regional directors have the upper hand in the functioning of the register of companies. 

Posting offered

 ICLS officers are posted according to ranks at various locations, some of them are mentioned below: 

• Officers are posted at the registrar of companies. 
• They may also serve as liquidators in the official sense.
• Regional directors of Company law boards. 
• Officers at fraud investigating offices. 
• MCA Headquarters in New Delhi. 

Roles and Responsibilities of ICLS officers 

Different cadres of ICLS officers perform different duties based on their ranking and grade. The main point of responsibility is attached to the companies’ act administration, together with the Liability partnership act and a few other co-related acts. Here we list out a few essential parts of their roles and responsibilities and their functionality in that role: 

• There are seven very prominent regions in India listed under the control of the regional director. They are given special powers to consolidate and execute the powers of the companies act. They fully exercise their administration control over their lower cadre officers in various offices. 
• The registration and regulation chronicles are controlled and supervised by the registrar. Various undertakings regarding partnerships are handled and brought to the fore by the Registrar. 
• The official liquidator looks into matters related to closed companies and companies that are on the verge of liquidation or those that have an unsolicited presence, hence required to liquidate in a matter of time. The pending allocation of credits, disbursement, and release of held and allocated resources from the closed units are further taken care of by the official liquidator. 

Indian Corporate Law Service Ranks and Salaries

The performances of the officers are evaluated on an annual basis. Based on individual appraisal status, reports related to scrutiny and action and vigilance clearance certificate, they will receive higher perks and get promoted to higher roles. Also, the inbuilt procedures in the government provisions facilitate timely promotion and better pay scales for these officers. 

Regional directors get superlative and extra performance powers to lead the legislative authorities and find a place in central government authorities too. The registrar of companies and the official liquidator report to the regional director in matters of administration control and regulation. 

Career prospects

The ICLS officers occupy various positions; some of them are very lucrative in the sense that they get to handle various departments and get to execute the law of the land under the right circumstances. Her we present a broad perspective of the many career hands that an ICLS officer gets to don during his long career journey:

• ICLS officers get posted as assistant directors, deputy directors, and joint directors to ensure the working of the companies in sync with the provisions of the companies act. 
• They get promoted as director of inspection and investigation during their tenure to conduct investigations of conflict-driven companies and investigate into real-time matters that may be causing loss to the government in many places. 
• ICLS officers who are posted at the Ministry headquarters get to play much bigger roles than their counterparts. They will deal with the laws and governing regulations from the roots and implement them in their functional areas. They will be heading panel for the framing of policies, rules, and regulations in the legal framework, implementing e-governance packages, issuing notices, tender releases, and much more.
• Bench officers get to serve their best at serious fraud investigating offices. 

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