Mohd. Sharief Tariq, Member - (1.) Under adjudication is an Interlocutory Application (IA) numbered as C.A. No. 12 of 2016 in C.P. No. 2 of 2016. The Company petition is filed u/s. 241 of the Companies Act, 2013 and this IA came to be filed u/s. 244 of the Act r/w. Rule 11 and Rule 63 of the NCLT Rules 2016 which has been filed on behalf of the Petitioner/1st Respondent Company.
(2.) The sum and substance of the IA is that a preliminary legal issue has been raised with respect to the maintainability of the CP on the ground that the Respondent/Petitioner is neither a member of R1 company nor 24 persons who had given consent to file the company petition are members of R1 company. It is stated in the IA that neither of them are entitled under provisions of Section 244 of the Act, 2013, to file the instant company petition invoking the provisions of Section 241 of the Act, 2013. Based upon this fact, the prayer has been made to dismiss the company petition as not maintainable.
(3.) Before any opinion is formed in relation to the maintainability of the company petition, it is necessary to summarise some of the important facts and circumstances that necessitated the petitioner to file the company petition. It could briefly be stated that R1 company is a public religious and charitable trust known by the name and style "The Church of South India Trust Association" (for short "The Company") having registration No. 112 of 1947-47 with CIN: U93090TN1947NPL000346. The company has been registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 on 26.09.1947 as can be seen from the Certificate of Incorporation issued by the Registrar of Companies, Madras City.;