KRUSHNA CHANDRA DAS Vs. ORISSA TEXTILE MILLS LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by a debtor that he may be adjudged insolvent under Section 10 of the Provincial Insolvency Act (Act V of 1920) on the ground that he is unable to pay his debts, in the circumstances stated in the petition. This application was opposed by his creditors the Orissa Textile Mills Ltd., one Gorisankar Sangnaria, the Official Liquidator of Puri Bank Ltd., the State o? Orissa representing the Divisional Forest Officer, Athgarh. The learned Advocate-General appearing for the State of Orissa, however, retired from the case, after making a statement to this Court that the dues against some defaulting contractors of Athgarh, including the present petitioner for insolvency, had been written off by the Government and therefore the State of Orissa representing the Divisional Forest Officer, Atgarh, is no longer one of the Creditors.

(2.) The petitioner Krushna Chandra Das was examined in chief by the learned counsel appearing for him and he was also cross-examined quite at length by all the learned Counsel appearing for the creditors opposing this application. The gist of the petitioner's evidence, as analysed, is to the effect that the total amount of his debts to the creditors, as appears from the list in Schedule A to the petition, is over Rs. 40,000/-, that he has absolutely no property of his own and whatever meagre moveable properties he is possessed of are set out in Schedule B valued at Rs. 26/- only, and that he Ss unable to pay his debts,

(3.) The application was strongly opposed, on behalf of the creditors, mainly on the grounds, inter alia, that, according to them, the petitioner had fraudulently concealed his property as also the books of account of the business he Carried on; and that the present application was not bona fide.