Section 53 - Service of documents on members by company. - Companies Act, 1956

Service of documents on members by company. 53. (1) A document may be served by a company on any member thereof either personally, or by sending it by post to him to his registered address, or if he has no registered address in India, to the address, if any, within India supplied by him to the company for the giving of notices to him. (2) Where a document is sent by post, (a) service thereof shall be deemed to be effected by properly addressing, prepaying and posting a letter containing the document, provided that where a member has intimated to the company in advance that documents should be sent to him under a certificate of posting or by registered post with or without acknowledgement due and has deposited with the company a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of doing so, service of the document shall not be deemed to be effected unless it is sent in the manner intimated by the member; and (b) [1] [* * *] such service shall be deemed to have been effected (i) in the case of a notice of a meeting, at the expiration of forty-eight hours after the letter containing the same is posted, and (ii) in any other case at the time at which the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post. (3) A document advertised in a newspaper circulating in the neighbourhood of the registered office of the company shall be deemed to be duly served on the day on which the advertisement appears, on every member of the company who has no registered address in India and has not supplied to the company an address within India for the giving of notices to him. (4) A document may be served by the company on the joint-holders of a share by serving it on the joint-holder named first in the register in respect of the share. (5) A document may be served by the company on the persons entitled to a share in consequence of the death or insolvency of a member by sending it through the post in a prepaid letter addressed to them by name, or by the title of representa tives of the deceased, or assignees of the insolvent, or by any like description, at the address, if any, in India supplied for the purpose by the persons claiming to be so entitled, or until such an address has been so supplied, by serving the document in any manner in which it might have been served if the death or insolvency had not occurred. -------------------------------- Notes:- [1] The words "unless the contrary is proved", omitted by the Companies (Amendment) Act, 1960, 65 of 1960, section 16.