MOHANLAL SARAF Vs. CUTTACK ELECTRIC SUPPLY CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition by one single shareholder of 1100 shares of Rs. 10/-each for winding up--on the alleged ground of substratum gone --of the Cuttack Electric supply Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as the company) which has been supplying electric light and power to Cuttack town since 1929. It is said that at all material times the company was and is still a prosperous and well managed business concern. The shareholders of the company are satisfied with the progress and prosperity of the company; ever since 1956 the shareholders have earned good dividends in respect of their shares. In about 1930 the company invested Rs. 5 "lacs or thereabout in its undertaking at Cuttack. . . and at present the total capital employed in the working of the said undertaking amounts to about Rs. 31. 5 lacs. On the basis of the present valuation of lands and buildings at Cuttack and its suburbs and on the basis of the high cost of machinery, materials, stores and other articles in the market in India, the present value of the land, buildings, machinery, materials and stores appertaining to the company's undertaking at Cuttack would be Rs. 80 lacs or thereabout. The authorised capital of the company is Rs. 10 lacs divided into one lac shares of Rs. 10/- each and the issued share capital is 66,014 shares of the value of Rs. 6,60,140/ -. The amount of capital paid up or credited as paid up is Rs. 6,60,040/ -. Octayius Steel and Company Limited previously were the Managing Agents and at present is the Secretary and Treasurer of the company.

(2.) THE main ground upon which the petitioner seeks to have the company wound up is set out in paragraph 11 of the petition : ". . . . . . . . . . . . the main object and the sole under. taking of the Company has all along only been to generate and supply electric energy at Cuttack. By the Government of Orissa purchasing the undertaking of the Company, the substratum of the Company is gone. There is no other business in which the Company is engaged and even if any new business is started in future at a later date, there is no reasonable hope that the object of trading at a profit with a view to which the Company was formed can be attained. Your petitioner further states that the shares of the Company had been sold to and purchased by the shareholders including your petitioner on the basis of the Company being engaged in the business of generating and supplying electric energy and in particular at Cuttack and now that the main object and business of the Company is gone, there is no justification of the Company in continuing to exist. " it is on these grounds that the petitioner submits that it is just and equitable that the said company should be wound up.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner, at the hearing, wished to introduce a further ground on which the company should be wound up. His ground is that the company suspended its business for more than one year from February 1, 1962 and that there was no hope of its carrying on business and attaining its objects.