Judgment:
The Court : Instead of taking up the stay application, by consent of parties, we take up the appeal since all the papers which have been used before the Hon'ble First Court have been filed before us.
This appeal is directed against the order dated 14th May, 2010. It appears that the claim of the petitioning creditor arises out of the professional charges for representing the company before the Appellate Authority for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction.
The bills relate to his professional fees and the company on demand did not pay the amount. Accordingly, statutory notice was served under section 434 of the Companies Act, 1956 on September 29, 2008.
The company did not respond to the said statutory notice. Hence, a windingup petition had been filed. After hearing the parties, the Hon'ble Company Court directed after giving an adjustment of Rs.15,000/-, which was admitted by the petitioning creditor before the Hon'ble Company Court, admitted the winding-up petition in respect of the principal sum of Rs.89.000/- together with interest thereon at the rate of 6% per annum from September 29, 2008, which is the date of the statutory notice.
The Hon'ble Company Court further directed that if the entire amount, inclusive of interest, is paid off by the company to the petitioner, within a period of four weeks from the date of the pr serving an authenticated copy of the order on the company, the winding-up petition will remain permanently stayed, and in default of payment, direction was given to publish advertisement once in The Statesman and once in Aajkal. Publication in the Official Gazette was also dispensed with.
Being aggrieved by the said order dated 14th May, 2010, this appeal has been preferred. The grounds which have been taken in the Memorandum of Appeal by the Company are that the company did not receive the bills which were relied upon by the petitioning creditor in the winding-up petition and further that the said winding-up petition is nothing but a pressure tactics on the respondent to squeeze money from the appellant company.
After hearing the learned Advocates appearing for the parties and after scrutinizing the materials placed before us, we do not find that the order of the Hon'ble Company Judge suffers from any irregularity or illegality, on the contrary, we find that the company has to pay the said amount as claimed by the petitioning creditor being the principal sum of Rs.89,000/- along with interest.
Accordingly, we give a chance to the company to pay off the dues of the petitioning creditor by two instalments. The first of such instalment is to be paid on or before 15.9.2010 and the second and the last instalment is to be paid on or before 15.11.2010 along with interest as directed to be paid by the Hon'ble Company Judge on the said principal amount.
In default of payment of any one instalment, the petitioning creditor/respondent shall be at liberty to give effect to the order for publication as directed by the Hon'ble Company Judge in the order dated 14th May, 2010 and in that event, the petitioning creditor/respondent shall be at liberty to mention the matter before the Hon'ble Company Judge after expiry of a period of two weeks from the date of publication.
The appeal and the application are thus disposed of.
All parties concerned are to act on a signed photocopy of this order on the usual undertakings.
Urgent certified photocopy of this order, if applied for, be supplied to the parties subject to compliance with all requisite formalities.