Registrar serves 90-day show-cause notices on seven firms facing dissolution

The Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms has put seven companies on 90-day notice that their names will be struck off the register and the firms dissolved unless they can show they are still operating. The show-cause notices, issued under section 346(3) of the Companies Act 1994, appear in the notices section of Part 6 of the Bangladesh Gazette dated 5 November 2026, on pages 1385 to 1387, each carrying its own ARGSC/D reference.

The issuing office is the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, the company registry under the Ministry of Commerce, and the notices are signed by four of its assistant registrars: Shahedul Azam, Khurshida Jahan, Md. Rafiqul Islam and Muhammad Selim Mia. Although the notices were printed in the 5 November edition, they were signed between 16 September and 14 October 2026, a sign of the batch nature of the exercise. Identical 90-day notices have appeared in the same section of the gazette repeatedly through 2026.

The seven companies named

• Friends Fishing Corporation Ltd., registration C-9851, notice dated 16 September 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17840.
• Redix Herbs Ltd., registration C-69970, notice dated 7 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17093.
• Romask Holdings Ltd., registration C-93690, notice dated 11 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17910.
• Romask Construction Ltd., registration C-144647, notice dated 11 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17911.
• Romask Real Estate Ltd., registration C-144648, notice dated 11 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17912.
• Aftab Breeder Northern Limited, registration C-137167, notice dated 13 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17922.
• Bhagulpur Farms Limited, registration C-5436, notice dated 14 October 2026, reference ARGSC/D, N/17926.

The statutory test: is the company still running?

Each notice is framed as a single question. The registrar asks whether the named company “is carrying on business or is in operation”, and gives it 90 days from publication to answer. Any reply must be filed with the registrar within that period.

The consequence of silence is spelled out in identical wording in all seven notices: if no cause is shown, the company’s name “will be struck off the register” and the company “will be dissolved”. The notices do not allege fraud, insolvency or any other wrongdoing; the only test set is whether the company still exists as a functioning business.

Why the deadline matters

Counting from publication on 5 November 2026, the 90-day window closes in the first days of February 2027. After that point the registrar is empowered to remove the entry from the register of companies, which extinguishes the company as a registered legal entity.

The practical reach is wide because the list mixes sectors and corporate ages: a Chattogram-based fishing company, a herbs business, a poultry breeder and three linked property and construction firms. The Romask trio is the clearest cluster, with consecutive references — N/17910, N/17911 and N/17912 — showing three separate legal entities from the same group being examined in one sweep.

For readers, the notices carry a direct warning. A director or shareholder of any of the seven firms who believes the company is active has roughly three months from 5 November 2026 to put that on record with the registrar; otherwise the names disappear from the register and the companies cease to exist. Creditors, landlords and counterparties dealing with any of these entities should also note that the gazette has now aired the question of their status publicly, in the form the law requires.

Source: Bangladesh Gazette, 5 November 2026, Part 6, Section I, pp. 1385–1387 (official reference: ARGSC/D, N/17840; ARGSC/D, N/17093; ARGSC/D, N/17910).