BIPIN BEHARI NAYAK Vs. REGISTRAR OF COMPANIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner assails the order of conviction recorded against him under Section 220(3) of the Companies Act, 1956 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Act"), sentencing him to pay a fine of Re. 0.25 paise for each day of default and in default of payment thereof, to suffer simple imprisonment for fifteen days for non -compliance with the provision made in Section 159 of the Act, in that the annual general meeting of the company of which the petitioner was said to be one of the directors should have been held on or before June 30, 1980, and the annual return was required to be submitted by August 29, 1980, but the petitioner had failed to comply with the said requirement. The case of the petitioner was that he was not one of the directors of the company and he had nothing to do with the filing of the return. The trial court has accepted the case of the prosecution and convicted the petitioner as indicated above.

(2.) AS has been submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned standing counsel for the Central Government, the only material against the petitioner placed by the prosecution in order to show that he was a director was a return submitted by the managing director of the company in Form No. 32. This cannot be construed to be an admission on the part of the petitioner that he was one of the directors. There is no evidence that the complainant had made any verification with reference to any other record as to whether the petitioner was one of the directors of the company. Thus, there was absence of proof to indicate that the petitioner was one of the directors of the company.

(3.) FOR the aforesaid reasons, the revision is allowed and the impugned order of conviction and sentence passed against the petitioner is set aside.