The advent of an entity called ‘company’ and its separate legal personality can be said to be one of the hallmarks of modern legal systems. The earliest companies were established using the Royal Charter and were mainly merchant guilds. It was only in 1844 that the Joint Stock Company Act was enacted in Britain, and the era of modern-day companies started. This law allowed for the registration of companies and mandated several compliances by them. Similarly, under the British Raj, the Joint Stock Companies Act was passed in India in 1857. Thereafter, the Companies Act of 1866 came into being, which was replaced by the Companies Act of 1913. Independent India has had two statutes: the Companies Act of 1956 and the existing Companies Act of 2013. Across these legislations spanning three centuries and continents, the aspect of record-keeping is uniform.