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TMI Blog1955 (4) TMI 18X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... emains unpaid on each of these shares and his total liability is therefore Rs. 2,500 plus Rs. 353-2-0 which is claimed to be due as interest. The facts do not appear to be seriously in dispute. The shares in question were held by Rai Bahadur Lala Banarsi Das who died on the 9th of March, 1938. Under the terms of his will Rajeshwar Parshad, petitioner, was appointed as his executor but apparently there was a long delay in obtaining probate with regard to the will. In the mean time dividends were declared by the bank and continued to accumulate on the shares, but it does not seem that until 1948 any serious effort was made by the petitioner to claim the arrears of dividends. Sometime in 1948 the petitioner was informed by the bank that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... counsel for the petitioner did not press as part of his claim and stated that the petitioner would be quite content if he were allowed to set off the sum of Rs. 1,500, which accrued in subsequent years. At the same time it may be observed that no claim for interest can be entertained in view of article 168 which reads : "Unpaid dividends shall never bear interest as against the company." As regards the claim to set off Rs. 1,500, the learned counsel for the petitioner relied on the provisions of section 156(1)( vii ) of the Companies Act. The introductory portion of sub-section (1) reads : "In the event of a company being wound up every present and past member shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be liable to contrib ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mpanies Act does not to my mind suggest that the object of sub-section (1)( vii ) was at all what is now claimed, or indeed that it was intended to give any relief of any kind to contributories. On the contrary its object appears to be to impose further hardship on these persons since its effect is that they are not even permitted to rank as creditors of the company in respect of any sums due to them on account of dividends or profits and that sums can only be claimed by them if and when all the debts of the company have been discharged and there remains a surplus available for distribution among the contributories when the stage contemplated by section 192 of the Act is reached. In the circumstances I do not consider that the petitione ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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