Q.What is meant by a "Memorandum of Association"?

A company cannot be registered without a founding document that fixes its very identity and the limits of what it may do.

The Memorandum of Association is the most fundamental document a company files at the time of its registration, and Section 4 of the Companies Act, 2013 governs its required form and contents. It is often called the company's charter because it defines the company's own identity and the boundary of its powers — the company cannot come into existence without a Memorandum in the prescribed form signed by its first subscribers, and it cannot lawfully do anything that falls outside what the Memorandum permits. Being a public document filed with the Registrar of Companies, it also lets anyone dealing with the company — a lender, a supplier, a prospective shareholder — find out exactly what business the company is permitted to carry on.

Students sometimes describe the Memorandum as merely a "registration form" rather than the document that fixes the company's permanent objects and powers. It is worth stressing that the Memorandum is not just a formality of registration — it continues to bind the company for as long as it exists, since any act beyond it remains void under the doctrine of ultra vires.