BRIJ LAL PALTA Vs. PARKASH CHAND MAHAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Kotkapura Trading Company Limited was ordered to be wound up by the High Court on 30-11-1956, on the application of M/s. Nand Ram Mewa Ram creditor. The Official Liquidator, on 7-1-1957, visit Kotkapura in order to take possession of the assets and records of the Company but none was made available as he was informed by the Directors an employees of the Company that its records had been burnt in the fire that broke out in the office of the Company on 25-3-1952. The Directors of the Company did not furnish any statement of the Company's affairs to the Official Liquidator. Shri Gopal Das Bahl P.W. 2, representative of the Official Liquidator, was sent to Kotkapura to collect some information regarding the affairs of the Company and after contacting some Directors, he learnt that there was a cash book of the Company and some vouchers with the present petitioner Shri Brij Lal Palta. No other records of the Company were recovered.

(2.) Shri Brij Lal Palta, the petitioner before me has filed this application purporting to be under S. 529 of the Companies Act, 1956. He has felt aggrieved from the order of the Official Liquidator rejecting his claim for Rs. 3,450/- against the Company. The case of the present petitioner is that he was neither a share-holder of the Company nor in any way concerned with it. It March, 1952, there was a fire in the office of the Company at Kotkapura and a case was registered in the police as foul play was suspected. The Directors of the Company and some creditors approached him at Faridkot, where he lived to intercede and as a result of his good offices he succeeded in settling the dispute between the Company and its creditors. The Company was not financially sound and though he had no concern with the Company and was not personally interested in any share-holder or creditor, he agreed to advance a sum of Rs. 4,300/- to the Company so that with the amount provided by him and such other funds as the Company could find, the claims of the creditors might be satisfied. He stated that Shri Amin Chand Jain a director of the Company was indebted to it tot he extent of Rs. 15,000/- and the sum advanced by him was agreed to be returned to him from the money that Amin Chand Jain was expected to pay. He stated that an entry with regard to the payment of Rs. 4,300/- by him was made in the cash book of the Company which remained in the personal custody of P.W. 1 Mool Chand, who was employed as Manager, and was not in the office of the Company when the premises caught fire. The petitioner has stated that this amount of Rs. 4,300/- was advanced by him to the Company through its Manager P.W. 1 Mool Chand, and the Managing Director and other Directors knew all about it. H also stated that from the amount advanced by him, the different creditors of the Company had been paid their dues. In the year 1952 the Company had paid by way of charity Rs. 850/ to the Gandhi Memorial School. According to the petitioner, this payment was wrongful and it had been returned to him. This was in 1956 and he appropriated this sum of Rs. 850/- towards his claim.

(3.) The Official Liquidator has not admitted the claim of the petitioner and has maintained that the claim was rightly rejected by him on 17-7-1958.