B. KANNAN Vs. DEPUTY REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition has been filed to quash the private complaint filed in E.O.C.C.No.46 of 2016 by the respondent herein for the alleged offences under Sec. 165 r/w 165(6) of the Companies Act, 2013.

(2.) The allegations in the complaint are that the petitioner violated the provisions of the Companies Act by holding Directorship of companies in excess of the limits prescribed under the provisions of Sec. 165 of the Companies Act, 2013 and the said violation is an offence punishable under Sec. 165(6) of the Act. As per Sec. 165(1) of the Act, no person, after the commencement of this Act, shall hold office as a Director, including any alternate Directorship, in more than twenty companies at the same time, provided that the maximum number of public companies, in which, a person can be appointed as a Director shall not exceed ten. Further, Sec. 165(3) of the Act provides that any person holding office as Director in companies more than the limits as specified in sub-sec. (1), immediately before the commencement of this Act shall, within a period of one year from such commencement: (a) choose not more than the specified limit of those companies, as companies, in which, he wishes to continue to hold the office of Director; (b) resign his office as Director in the other remaining companies, and (c) intimate the choice made by him under clause (a) to each of the companies in which he was holding the office of Director before such commencement and to the Registrar having jurisdiction in respect of each such company. Further, 165(5) of the Act provides that no such person shall act as Director in more than the specified number of companies. The complaint therefore states that the petitioner herein had violated the provisions of Ss. 165(1), (3) and (5) of the Companies Act by holding Directorship in 29 companies and hence, liable for punishment under Sec. 165(6) of the Act.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioner made the following submissions praying for quashing of the complaint as against him.