The Hon’ble Court on April 3, 2017 vide its Circular No. G-/ 176/2017 (hereinafter referred to as the “Order”) prohibited companies from using the prefix M/s. The Order also prohibits the use of any prefixes in the title of legal proceedings.
The Hon’ble Court noted that both private companies and public companies were in the habit of using the abbreviation “M/s” before the name of their entity. This practice has been held to be incorrect by the Hon’ble Court as the prefix “M/s” is permitted to be used only by a firm, and not by a company. Therefore while filing a case before any Court in Maharashtra, companies must ensure that they do not use the prefix “M/s” in their submissions.
The Order further states that any kind of prefixes, i.e. M/s, Mr., Ms., Mrs. are not to be used in the title of legal proceedings.
The Hon’ble court issued such order with an intention of ensuring that the process of issuance of certified copies becomes easy and no incorrect descriptions is carried forward into orders. In view of the above, the High Court has directed the Section Officer and clerk of Centralized filing and Lodging Department to scrutinize that pleadings shall verify the required compliance.
Therefore, any company registered under the Companies Act, 1956/2013 cannot henceforth use the prefix “M/s”. Any suit instituted before any court in Maharashtra by using the prefix “M/s” or , “Mr”, “Ms”, “Mrs” would be in violation of the said Order and are hence liable to be rejected.