Glossary
Registered society
An NGO registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or a state equivalent.
A registered society is an association of at least seven persons registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (or a state equivalent — every state has one) for a literary, scientific, or charitable purpose. Societies are democratic in structure: members elect a governing council, and both the members' list and the governing council are on record with the state Registrar of Societies.
Historically, most India-wide grassroots networks and educational institutions were registered as societies because the form is cheap to establish and familiar to state government officials. Its weakness compared with Section 8 is that a society registered in one state has no automatic standing in another — a national NGO organised as a society often ends up also registering under one of the state Public Trust Acts to operate in those states.
Societies still hold 12A/80G and, for corporate CSR receipts, CSR-1.