You are about to lend money to a supplier, invest in a private company, or acquire a small business. On paper the balance sheet looks healthy. But before you sign anything, there is one question you need answered: has the company already pledged its assets to someone else? If its factory, its receivables, or its machinery are mortgaged to three banks, the security you think you are getting may already be spoken for.
That answer sits in a public record called the index of charges. It is one of the most useful and most overlooked tools in Indian corporate due diligence, and you can read it without paying a lawyer. This guide explains what a charge is, what the index of charges shows you, and exactly how to check the loans and mortgages registered against any company.
What Is a “Charge” in Company Law?
A charge is a security interest a company creates over its own assets when it borrows money. When a bank or financial institution lends to a company, it usually wants collateral. The company agrees that if it fails to repay, the lender can recover the debt out of a specific asset. That legal claim over the asset is the charge.
The asset can be almost anything the company owns: land and buildings, plant and machinery, vehicles, stock, book debts and receivables, or even intangible property. The form the security takes depends on the asset:
- Mortgage — typically over immovable property such as land or a factory building.
- Hypothecation — over movable assets like machinery, vehicles, stock or receivables, where the company keeps possession but the lender holds the security.
- Pledge — over movable assets the lender actually holds, such as shares or goods.
Under the Companies Act, a company that creates a charge is required to register it with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Registration is what makes the charge part of the public record. The point is transparency: anyone dealing with the company can see what its assets are committed to, and a lender that fails to register its charge can lose priority over later creditors. Because of that incentive, most genuine bank borrowings do show up in the public record.
What Is the Index of Charges?
The index of charges is the public register, maintained through the MCA, that lists every charge a company has created, modified, or satisfied over its lifetime. Think of it as the company’s complete borrowing-and-security history in one place. Each entry records a single charge: who the lender is, how much it secured, when it was created, and whether it is still live or has been cleared.
It is worth separating two related terms. Inside the company, the law also requires a private register of charges to be kept at the registered office. The index of charges is the version held on the MCA’s records and available to the public. For due diligence purposes, the MCA index is what you will actually consult, because you can reach it from outside the company without anyone’s permission.
The index of charges sits alongside the rest of a company’s public footprint. If you want the bigger picture of where this data comes from, our guide on how to access MCA company master data walks through the registration details, directors and filing history that surround the charges record.
Why the Index of Charges Matters for Due Diligence
A balance sheet tells you how much a company owes in total. The index of charges tells you something the headline numbers hide: which assets are pledged, to whom, and in what order. That distinction changes decisions.
- It tells you who the company owes. Each charge names the lender. A long list of bank charges signals heavy reliance on debt; charges in favour of non-bank lenders or related parties can warrant a closer look.
- It tells you whether the assets are already pledged. If you are taking security over a property that already carries an open mortgage, you may be standing behind an existing lender in the queue for repayment.
- It tells you how leveraged the company is. The number of open charges, the amounts secured and how recent they are give you a feel for the company’s debt appetite that a single net-debt figure cannot.
This is essential reading before you lend to, invest in, or acquire a company. A buyer who skips the charges check can inherit a business whose core assets are already mortgaged to the hilt. A lender who skips it can discover, too late, that there is no unencumbered collateral left.
How to Check the Index of Charges, Step by Step
There are two practical routes. You can go directly to the MCA portal, or you can use a search tool that pulls the same public data into a cleaner view.
Via the MCA Portal
- Open the MCA portal and go to MCA Services. Under “Master Data” you will find a dedicated “View Index of Charges” lookup, alongside the separate “View Company/LLP Master Data” service.
- Open the “View Index of Charges” lookup and enter the company’s name or its Corporate Identity Number (CIN), then run the search.
- Read the table that appears. It lists each charge with its charge ID, the charge holder (lender), the amount secured, the date of creation, and the status — open or satisfied.
If you do not already know the company’s CIN, you will need it to search reliably. Knowing the exact registered name also helps, because similar names are common.
Via WeeDoo
The quicker route, especially if you are checking several companies, is to run a free MCA company search on WeeDoo. Search by company name or director name across more than 27 lakh companies, open the company’s profile, and view its charges alongside its master data, directors and filing history — without navigating the portal’s multi-step lookup. The underlying records are the same public MCA data; the difference is that it is gathered into one readable page.
The Fields You See, and How to Read Them
An index of charges entry has a handful of fields. None of them is complicated on its own, but reading them together is what turns the record into a useful signal. Here is what each field means.
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Charge ID | A unique identifier for that specific charge. Use it to refer to a single entry, and to track the same charge across its creation, modification and satisfaction. |
| Charge Holder | The lender in whose favour the charge is created — a bank, financial institution, NBFC or other creditor. This is who would have a claim on the asset if the company defaults. |
| Amount | The sum secured by the charge, in rupees. Note this is the secured amount, not necessarily the current outstanding balance, which may be lower if the company has been repaying. |
| Date of creation | When the charge was registered. Recent dates suggest fresh borrowing; a cluster of new charges can indicate the company is gearing up on debt. |
| Status | Either Open (the charge is still live and the security stands) or Satisfied (the charge has been released). This is the single most important field for a quick read. |
Read the fields as a set. A single open charge for ₹50,00,000 in favour of a well-known bank, created five years ago, is ordinary. Several open charges totalling several crore, created in the last eighteen months, in favour of a mix of lenders, tells a very different story about leverage and timing.
Open Charge vs Satisfied Charge
The difference between an open charge and a satisfied charge is the difference between a loan that is still secured and one that has been cleared. Getting this distinction right is the whole point of checking the register.
| Open charge | Satisfied charge | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | The charge is still live; the underlying loan is treated as outstanding and the asset remains pledged. | The charge has been released; the loan it secured is recorded as cleared and the asset is freed. |
| Effect on the asset | The asset is encumbered — a lender has a claim on it. | The asset is unencumbered as far as that charge is concerned. |
| What you should do | Treat the asset as already committed. Factor the lender’s priority into any security you take. | You can generally treat that particular security as no longer applying — but confirm the date and cross-check. |
An open charge is a flag to investigate, not an automatic red mark — most operating companies carry some secured borrowing. What matters is the scale relative to the company’s size and the assets you care about. A satisfied charge, by contrast, is generally good news: a debt that was once secured has been paid off and the security released. Still, note the satisfaction date and treat very recent satisfactions with a little care, because timing close to a transaction can be worth a question.
The Forms Behind the Record
You do not need to file anything to read the index of charges, but it helps to know how entries get there, because the forms explain why the status sometimes lags reality.
- CHG-1 is the form a company files to register a charge it has created (a separate form is used for charges by debentures). This is what puts a new entry on the record with an Open status.
- CHG-4 is the form filed to record the satisfaction of a charge once the secured loan has been repaid. Filing it is what flips the status from Open to Satisfied.
The practical takeaway is that the register reflects what has been filed. If a company has repaid a loan but has not yet filed CHG-4, the charge can still show as Open. The opposite can also happen in edge cases. The record is reliable, but it is a record of filings, not a live ledger — keep that in mind when something looks slightly off.
How Charges Connect to the Financials
The index of charges is most powerful when you read it next to the company’s accounts. The two cross-check each other. Secured borrowings that appear on the balance sheet should broadly line up with the open charges on the register; large open charges with no matching debt in the accounts, or significant secured debt with no charges registered, are both worth a second look.
If you want to turn that into a proper analysis, pair this guide with our walkthrough on reading a company’s financial statements. Together, the charges register and the accounts give you a grounded view of how a company is funded and how much of it is already pledged — exactly what you need before you commit money to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does an open charge mean?
An open charge means the charge is still live and the loan it secures is treated as outstanding. The pledged asset remains encumbered — the lender named as charge holder has a claim on it if the company defaults. It is a normal feature of most operating companies, but it tells you that asset is already committed, so factor it in before taking your own security over the same property.
What does satisfaction of charge mean?
Satisfaction of charge means the secured loan has been repaid and the charge has been released, so the asset is no longer pledged under that charge. The company records it by filing the relevant satisfaction form (CHG-4) with the ROC, which flips the status on the register from Open to Satisfied. A satisfied charge is generally a positive signal — a debt that was once secured is now cleared.
Is the index of charges public and free to check?
Yes. Charges are registered with the MCA precisely so that the record is public, and you can view a company’s index of charges through the MCA’s “View Index of Charges” service under Master Data. You can also see it as part of a company’s profile when you run a free MCA company search on WeeDoo. Viewing the index is free; only downloading certain certified documents from the portal carries a fee.
What if a charge shows satisfied but the loan looks active?
Remember that the register reflects filings, not a live loan ledger. A mismatch can mean the satisfaction was filed in error, the dates do not align with what you have been told, or the active loan is secured by a different charge you have not spotted. Do not rely on the status alone in this situation — note the charge ID and dates, compare them against the company’s accounts, and ask the company or lender directly before you proceed.
How do charges relate to a company’s financials?
Open charges should broadly correspond to the secured borrowings shown on the balance sheet, so the register and the accounts act as a cross-check on each other. Reading them together tells you not just how much a company owes but which assets are pledged and to whom — a sharper picture of leverage than any single number. When the charges and the financials do not line up, that gap is itself a useful prompt to dig deeper.
