INDIAN BANK Vs. ATHENA DEMWE POWER LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In relation to the offence arising out of non-filing of financial statements with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for the Financial Year ended on 2014-2015, the Petitioners above named have filed the above Petition for compounding the offence under Section 137 of the Companies Act, 2013, with the Registrar of Companies, NCT of Delhi & Haryana and the same has been put up before us as required under the provisions of Companies Act, 2013 for compounding the offence.

(2.) The Petitioner claims that the delay in filing the financial statements for the Financial Year were inter-alia caused because the company was undergoing losses. It is further pleaded in the Petition that the violation committed for non-filing of the financial statements is not willful and that in the circumstances as they have voluntarily reported the non-compliance on their own, the same may be duly considered while taking into consideration the imposition of fine, as prescribed under the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. It is also averred that they have put an end to the offence by filing the financial statements Account for the relevant years as tabulated in the Petition and which is extracted below:

(3.) The Registrar of Companies has filed a detailed report dated 02.08.2017 and a perusal of which shows that no prosecution in relation to the offence has been filed or launched and that similar offence has also not been compounded during the last 3 years. It is further reported that the default has been made good as per details furnished by RoC which is in accordance with the compilation, as extracted in paragraph 2 above. Further, it is also represented by the RoC in the report dated 02.08.2017 that no complaint has been received against the Company and that there is no inspection or investigation proceedings pending against the Company. The ROC has correctly computed the period of default occurring on and from 01.11.2015 upto and until 09.02.2017 when the petitioner company made good the default by filing form AOC-4 being the financial statements for the year 2014-2015. The contention of the Petitioner that the period of default should be computed after the expiry of 270 days by invoking Section 403 of the Companies Act, 2013 is not well founded as the same has been prescribed for levy of additional fee if any, and is without prejudice to any other liability including the levy of penalty and hence will not thereby exonerate the petitioners.