MUKUND MAHESWARI Vs. PERFECT POTTERY CO LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition filed under Section 397/398 of the Companies Act, on February 12, 1993, alleging acts of oppression and mismanagement in the operation of Perfect Pottery Company Limited, has raised an interesting question of, law, as to whether it is possible to grant any relief, when during the pendency of the petition before us, the company's name has been struck off from the Register of Companies by the Registrar of Companies and thus has been dissolved.

(2.) This petition was filed on February 12, 1993. Only the company was made a respondent. In spite of repeated notices, the respondent-company did not file any reply to the petition. One Shri Rajesh Maheswari, an ex-director has filed the reply only on July 10, 1997. The delay in filing the petition is attributed to the fact that the registered office of the company had already been shifted and as such the company was not in receipt of the notices issued earlier. At this point, it is relevant to note, that there had been some disputes between the shareholders of the company and they jointly filed a memo of compromise in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur, by which different companies under the same management had been divided among the shareholders and one of the terms of that compromise was that on the working out of the terms of compromise the parties were at liberty to apply for the name of the company being struck off from the Register of Companies. The High Court disposed of the petition filed therein in terms of the compromise on February 21, 1992. The petitioner himself has stated in the petition that since April 1, 1992, the company was in the process of dissolution and that there was no permanent asset in the ownership of the company.

(3.) FROM the belated reply filed on behalf of the respondent-company, it is seen, that the company's name was struck off by the Registrar of Companies on an application made to him in pursuance of the compromise order passed by the M. P. High Court at Jabalpur. A report has also been received by us from the Registrar of Companies, Gwalior, that the company's name was struck off on November 18, 1995, in pursuance of the High Court's order and that now the company stands dissolved with effect from November 18, 1995.