9911796707
TMI Blog1940 (9) TMI 16X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s of this company. They have been prosecuted for an alleged contravention of section 73( a ) of the Indian Companies Act which requires that every limited company shall paint or affix, and keep painted or affixed, its name on the outside of every office or place in which its business is carried on, in a conspicuous position, in letters easily legible and in English characters. The complaint was that on the first three days of September, 1937, this company had not got its name painted or affixed outside its office or place of business as required by the section, and the learned Presidency Magistrate has found this proved as a fact and has convicted the applicants under section 74(1) of the Act, which makes the contravention of section 73 pen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ound was not in existence at that place on the relevant dates. He also says that he was taken upstairs to the landing of the upper story of the bungalow where the office room is located and on the wall opposite the landing he found a small board, as he describes it, with the words " Dr. H.L. Batliwalla Sons Co., Ltd." This board was fixed in such a manner that it would be visible to anyone who goes up the staircase but would not be visible from the road. The board was two feet by one foot and the largest capital letters were two and a half inches, the others about one inch. A perusal of the very long and careful judgment of the learned Magistrate points to the conclusion that the question between the parties was as to the existence of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ing of the words used there has been no contravention of the section. It is a penal provision and has to be construed strictly, and therefore the burden is very strongly on the prosecution, i.e., the opponents in this application to show that there really has been an infringement of the law and that in circumstances such as those existing in this case a meaning must be given to the section which is not the literal one. The learned Magistrate's reason for holding that the words "outside the office or place where the business is carried on" mean outside the premises or in this particular case outside the compound seems to be that in the absence of a board outside there would be a difficulty or might be a difficulty in finding one's way to t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s bearing the names of these various companies should be affixed or that the names should be painted outside the building. We think that in such a case clearly the requirements of the Act would be satisfied by a board of the necessary conspicuousness and legibility outside the office room inside the building. No doubt, in the present case, the company owns the whole of the premises, but we do not consider that that makes any difference in principle, and we are not prepared to hold that when an office is situated within a compound the law requires the name of the company to be painted or affixed outside the compound as well as outside the office. Our attention was drawn to evidence that was given in the case to show that certain persons wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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