Digital signature certificates (DSC) are the digital equivalent (that is electronic format) of physical or paper certificates. Examples of physical certificates are drivers' licenses, passports or membership cards. Certificates serve as a proof of identity of an individual for a certain purpose; for example a driver's license identifies someone who can legally drive in a particular country. Likewise, a digital certificate can be presented electronically to prove your identity, to access information or services on the Internet or to sign certain documents digitally.

Like physical documents are signed manually, electronic documents, for example e-forms are required to be signed digitally through Digital Signature Certificate. As per MCA21 project of ministry of company affairs all the company forms have to be filed electronically.

A licensed Certifying Authority (CA) issues the digital signature. Certifying Authority (CA) means a person who has been granted a licence to issue a digital signature certificate under Section 24 of the Indian IT-Act 2000. The list of licensed CAs along with their contact information is available on www.mca.gov.in . You can obtained your DSC from LRA (Licensed Registration Authority) of e-mudhra.

Class 1: These certificates do not hold any legal validity as the validation process is based only on a valid e-mail ID and involves no direct verification.

Class 2: Here, the identity of a person is verified against a trusted, pre-verified database.

Class 3: This is the highest level where the person needs to present himself or herself in front of a Registration Authority (RA) and prove his/ her identity.

The certifying authority, on receipt of the application, after due consideration of the certification statement and other particulars and enquiry, can grant the DSC. Discretion is vested with the certifying authority to reject any application. Reasons should be recorded in case of rejection.

For issuing the DSC, the certifying authority should take into consideration the following points:
*The applicant holds the private key corresponding to the public key to be listed in the DSC.
*The applicant holds the private key, which is capable of creating a digital signature.
*The public key to be listed in the certificate can be used to verify a digital signature affixed by private key held by the applicant.

DSC of Class 2 and Class 3 category issued by a licensed Certifying Authority (CA) needs to be obtained for e-filing on the MCA Portal.

No

The cost of obtaining a digital signature certificate may vary as there are many entities issuing DSCs and their charges my differ.

The time taken by CAs to issue a DSC may vary from seven to ten days.

The Certifying Authorities are authorized to issue a Digital Signature Certificate with a validity of at least one year.

Digital Signatures are legally admissible as per IT ACT 2000.

You can store your Digital Signature in a Pen Drive/ Removable Media to carry the same to the PFO for digitally signing the e-forms.

Click the Digital Signature field in the e-form. The system will prompt you to sign the e-form through a digital signature that is stored on your Pen Drive/ CD.

Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is not required by Companies but by individuals. For example the Director or the Company Secretary, signing on behalf of the Company requires a DSC.

No. it is mandatory to have a valid digital signature certificate for e-filing the forms on MCA portal.

No. A DSC is unique to each individual. If a professional has obtained a DSC, he/ she can use the same DSC for e-filing of forms for multiple companies, provided he/ she has been authorized to do so by the respective companies.

Yes. If the Company Secretary is an authorized signatory, he/ she is required to obtain a DSC.

You should keep the media carrying your digital signature safely and not disclose your password to anybody.

Digital Signatures are password protected and cannot be copied from a digitally signed document.

There is no difference between the two signatures. Only the media differs.

Both have their own advantages and disadvantages. It all depends upon the comfort level of subscriber and his intended usage of the same. Both require passwords for usage. Also see e-token Vs Pen drive?

Why USB e-token? A Digital Signature certificate (DSC) is kept in internet explorer of computer system (PC) but keeping DSC on your computer system has following draw backs :- a) It can be misused by anyone who is having access to your computer system. b) DSC is lost if computer system is formatted or internet explorer is changed. Accordingly, safe and proper method is to keep DSC on e-token, a small USB port devise, which is password protected. The said e-token is a small hardware device and can be plugged to USB port of any system to digitally sign the documents and when not in use can be kept in safe custody.

Encryption is the transformation of information from readable form into some unreadable form.

Decryption is the reverse of encryption; it's the transformation of encrypted data back into some intelligible form.