Raj Kumar Kusari v. The King-Emperor

In this case the Petitioner, who was the Secretary and is also described as the Manager of the Darjeeling Press Company, Limited, has been convicted under sec. 134(4) of Act VII of 1913, that is to say, the Indian Companies Act, on the footing that he is an officer of the said Company and had knowingly and wilfully authorised or permitted default to be made in submitting to the Registrar of Companies the balance-sheet laid before the Company at its general meeting. The balance-sheet in question is the balance-sheet for the year ending on the 31st of March 1914; and part of the defence of the Petitioner was or appears to have been that it was in fact impossible for him to comply with the requirements ??? 134 inasmuch as in fact there had ??? general meeting before which any ??? for the year 1914 could be ???. From the proceedings before the ??? Presidency Magistrate it is impossible for us to say on what finding of fact the Magistrate has acted in convicting the Petitioner, and it is also impossible for us to ascertain whether the defence of the Petitioner as summarised above has at all been considered. Assuming that the defence was correct in fact that no such general meeting had been held, and that would seem to be the case from the explanation submitted to us by the trying Magistrate, in order to bring the Petitioner within the rule laid down in Park v. Lawton it was necessary in the first instance to show with reference to the provisions of sec. 76 of the Act that the Petitioner who was an officer of the Company was knowingly a party to the default in holding the general meeting. That question has not been inquired into at all. That being so, we cannot hold that this case has been properly tried.

We therefore set aside the conviction and sentence and direct that the Petitioner be retried under the provisions of sec. 76 and sec. 134(4) of the Indian Companies Act and we further direct that the retrial be held in the Court of the Chief Presidency Magistrate. In these terms this Rule is made absolute.

S.C.M

Rule made absolute.