The ADT-1 due date for FY 2025-26 is 15 October 2026 — but only for companies whose annual general meeting on 30 September 2026 actually appointed or reappointed the statutory auditor. Form ADT-1 is not the appointment itself; it is the notice that tells the Registrar of Companies who that auditor is. The Companies Act gives you fifteen days from the meeting to file it, and for a company that held its AGM on the last permitted day, that clock runs out on Thursday 15 October.
What the ADT-1 due date for FY 2025-26 actually covers
Section 139(1) of the Companies Act, 2013 requires that, once a company appoints an auditor, it must “inform the auditor concerned of his or its appointment, and also file a notice of such appointment with the Registrar within fifteen days of the meeting in which the auditor is appointed.” Rule 4(2) of the Companies (Audit and Auditors) Rules, 2014 fixes the form that notice takes: Form ADT-1.
So ADT-1 is a one-way intimation to the ROC. The appointment happens by resolution inside your AGM; ADT-1 is how the public register is updated to match. Miss it and your filed records say nothing about who signs your accounts — even though your books are being audited on schedule.
Who has to file ADT-1 this year — and who does not
This is the part most compliance calendars get wrong by listing ADT-1 as an annual filing for every company. It is not. A statutory auditor is appointed to hold office from the conclusion of one AGM until the conclusion of the sixth AGM — a five-year term. The requirement to put that appointment up for ratification at every AGM was removed with effect from 7 May 2018, so a continuing auditor in the middle of a term does not generate a fresh ADT-1 each year.
ADT-1 is triggered when there is an appointment to notify:
| When ADT-1 is triggered | The 15-day clock starts from |
|---|---|
| Auditor appointed or reappointed at this year’s AGM (for example, the five-year term ended) | The date of that AGM |
| Casual vacancy filled, or auditor changed, during the year | The meeting that made the appointment |
| First auditor appointed by the Board after incorporation | The Board meeting that appointed them |
If your FY 2025-26 AGM did none of these — your existing auditor is simply continuing mid-term — there is no ADT-1 to file for the year. If it did any of them, the notice is due within fifteen days. The case that catches companies out most often is the reappointment at the end of a five-year term: because nothing changed — the same firm carries on — it feels like continuity, but in law it is a fresh appointment, and a fresh appointment is exactly what triggers a new ADT-1.
How the 15 October date is derived
The date is not a fixed national deadline; it is arithmetic off your own AGM. A company with a 31 March 2026 financial year-end must hold its AGM within six months of the year-end under Section 96 — by 30 September 2026. Add the fifteen days Section 139(1) allows and the ADT-1 due date for FY 2025-26 lands on 15 October 2026, a Thursday, for any company that appointed its auditor on that last AGM day.
If you held your AGM earlier than 30 September, your ADT-1 clock started earlier — count fifteen days from the actual meeting date, not from 30 September. If the ROC granted an extension and your AGM was held later, the fifteen days run from the meeting that was actually held.
That is the single most common error: treating 15 October as everyone’s date. It is the date for the latest-possible AGM. Yours may be earlier, and if it is, your deadline has already moved forward with it.
What ADT-1 is, and is not
ADT-1 is easy to confuse with the two filings that follow it, because all three flow out of the same AGM. It is worth keeping them apart:
- ADT-1 notifies the ROC of the auditor’s appointment — due within 15 days of the AGM.
- AOC-4 files the audited financial statements — a separate deadline counted from the AGM.
- MGT-7 / MGT-7A files the annual return — a further separate deadline.
ADT-1 is the first of the post-AGM filings and the easiest to overlook, precisely because it only comes up in the years you actually change or reappoint an auditor. Along with the board resolution and the auditor’s written consent and eligibility certificate, it closes the loop between the decision your members took and what the register shows.
The cost of missing it
A late ADT-1 attracts additional government fees that increase with the length of the delay, and it leaves a gap between your ROC record and your real auditor until it is filed. We are deliberately not quoting a rupee figure here — the additional-fee slab should be confirmed on the MCA portal at the time of filing — but the practical point stands: this is a cheap filing to do on time and an avoidable irritation to do late. If your auditor was appointed or reappointed at this year’s AGM, file ADT-1 well inside the fifteen days rather than on day fifteen.
If you are not sure whether your FY 2025-26 AGM triggered an ADT-1 at all — or you want the ADT-1, AOC-4 and MGT-7 sequence handled as one clean post-AGM filing run — that is exactly the kind of statutory housekeeping Indefine takes off your desk.