SAROJA MILLS, LIMITED Vs. THE REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE order confirming the alteration was made by this Court on 11th, January, 1963, and it was drawn up on 3rd April, 1963. On 15th January, the petitioner applied for a copy of the order ; but for want of steps it was struck off on 17th April, 1963. The petitioner again applied for a copy on 24th June, 1963. The question is whether the copy application is in time.

(2.) TO decide this matter, it is necessary to refer to three sections of the Indian Companies Act, 1956. Sub -section (1) of Section 18 requires that an order made under Section 17(5) should be filed with the Registrar of Companies within three months from the date of the order. Sub -section (4) of Section 18 enables the Court, by order, to extend the time for the filing of the order by such periods as it thinks proper. Where there is failure to comply with the requirement of Section 18(1), the effect of such failure is indicated by Section 19, which is that, at the expiry of the period mentioned in Section 18(1), the order confirming the alteration shall become void and inoperative. A proviso to Sub -section (2) of Section 19, however, gives power to the Court, on sufficient cause being shown, to revive the order on application made within a further period of one month. Both these sections as it seems to me, so far as the time factor is concerned, have to be read and understood in the light of Section 640 -A which provides for exclusion of time required in obtaining Copies of orders of Court. This section says that, whenever a Court's order is required to be filed with the Registrar within a specified period, in computing that period, the time taken in drawing up the order and in obtaining a copy thereof shall be excluded.

(3.) ON the other hand, learned Government Pleader for the Registrar argues that, since the order confirming an alteration should be filed within three months from the date of the order, and this provision is controlled by Section 19(2), any application filed beyond three months of the date of the order, in any case, within a further period of one month, in view of the proviso to Sub -section (2) of Section 19, would be out of time. Reliance for this construction is placed on a decision of mine in Janardhana Mills, Limited v. Registrar of Companies Application No. 118 of 1962 in O.P. No. 40 of 1958. I do not think that the construction contended for the Registrar or the decision relied on by him is of any assistance to him, on the facts of this case. In that case, the application for excluding the delay was filed more than a year after the drawing up of the order. It was held in that case that Section 19(2) along with its proviso, controlled the scope of Sub -section (4) of the Section 18, and that being the case, any application for a copy after the expiry of the four months, that is to say, three months from the date of the order and one month contemplated by the proviso, excluding the time taken for drawing up the order, would be out of time.