SUDARSHAN TRADING COMPANY LIMITED Vs. PP SAFFIYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These contentions six applications being I.A. Nos. 3-8 of 1990 in Special Leave Petition No. 15731 of 1989 are the aftermath-of an order dated 19th March, 1990 passed by a two Judge Bench of this Court disposing of the Special Leave Petition. That order reads as follows

(2.) The Order came to be passed in these circumstances Sudershan Chits India Ltd. is a Company in liquidation before the Kerala High Court. Sudershan Trading Company Ltd. the petitioner in the Special Leave petition was the Holding company of the company in liquidation. The holding cornpany was required to discharge its liability of Rs. 8.09 crores to the company in liquidation. To facilitate payment thereof, the petitinercompany obtained permission from a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on 11-6-1987 to sell its 20.79 acres of land,toghether with Coconut trees standing thereon, the land being situated on the outskirts of Madras city. To facilitate the sale of land and to ensure that the sale consideration was paid over to the Company in liquidation the Kerala High Court appointed a retired Judge of the Madras High Court, Justice K. S. Venkatraman as Receiver of the Company in liquidation. The High Court also granted permission for sale of land in separate plots. Some effort was made to sell the land to begin with but later directions were obtained from the Court to advertise sale of land in newspapers. In response to publication some offers came, the highest of which was at Rs. 2 lakhs per acre. Such highest offer was made by the applicant in interim application No. 5 of 1990.

(3.) The applicant in interim application No. 3 of 1990 is the All India Subscribers Association of Sudershan Chits India Limited. It appears that there were more than one lakh creditors of the company in liquidation. It transpires that about 72 thousand creditors and odd have been paid off already. Some of the creditors formed an association and got constituted itself a registered society under the Societies Registration Act. Now this society got itself impleaded in the liquidation proceedings before the Kerala High Court making an offer that it was willing to pay Rs. 2.5 lakhs per acre for the land proposed to be sold. A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on 6-10-1989 considered the offer of the society and finding this offer to be the highest directed the petitioner-Sudershan Trading Company to sell the same to the society subject to the society paying Rs.5 lakhs within one month from 6-10-1989 and the balance within nine months thereafter. The Court also worked out the total price to be about Rs. 52 lakhs. To allay the fears of the petitioner company the High Court put the society to terms in the sense that in the event of failure to pay Rs. 5 lakhs within one month from 6-10-1989 it was open to the holding company to sell the land to the highest offerer at the rate of Rs. 2 lakhs per acre. On the other hand in the event of payment of Rs. 5 lakhs within time and the remaining balance not being paid within time the sum of Rs. 5 lakhs was directed to be forefeited and the said amount too to be credited in reduction of its liability to the company in liquidation. This order of the High Court was the subject matter of challenge before this Court in Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 15731 of 1989 which as said before was disposed of by the Order quoted.