As per provison to section 253 of the Companies Act, 1956, inserted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2006, w.e.f. 1-11-2006, no company shall appoint or re-appoint any individual as director of the company unless he has been allotted a Director Identification Number under section 266B.
Section 266A has been inserted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 2006 which provides that every individual, intending to be appointed as director of a company shall make an application for allotment of Director Identification Number (DIN) to the Central Government in the prescribed DIN Form. Therefore, before submission of e-Form 1A all the directors of the proposed company must ensure that they are having DIN and if they are not having DIN, it should be first obtained.
Specific care should be taken that a person cannot have more than one DIN, therefore, a DIN once obtained shall serve the requirement for all the companies in which he is a director or intended to be a director.

Requirement for having digital signatures

After 16th Sept., 2006, every document prescribed under the Companies Act, 1956 is required to be filed with the digital signature of the managing director or director or manager or secretary of the Company, therefore, it is compulsorily required to obtain digital signatures of at least one director (now called applicant) to sign the e-Form 1A and other documents. It may be noted that if the director or other persons covered are having digital signatures, their signatures may be used for the above said purpose and there is no need take new signature again.