Under Section 7 of the Companies Act, 2013, upon registration, the Registrar issues a certificate of incorporation. What is the legal effect of this certificate? 

Section 7(2) provides that the certificate of incorporation given by the Registrar shall be conclusive evidence that all the requirements of the Act in respect of registration and of matters precedent and incidental thereto have been complied with and that the association is a company authorised to be registered and is duly registered under the Act. The certificate operates as the 'birth certificate' of the company-from the date mentioned in the certificate, the company comes into existence as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal. This principle of conclusiveness was affirmed even under the old Companies Act in the landmark Jubilee Cotton Mills case, where it was held that even if the registration was obtained by fraud, the certificate remains conclusive and the company cannot be treated as never having existed.