-: 1 :- IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION COMPANY PETITION NO.779 OF 2000 Hindustan Organic Chemical Ltd. : Petitioner V/s. Sriman Organic Chemical Industries Limited : Respondent ... Mr.A. Davar i/b. Crawford Bayley & Co., for the petitioner. Ms Manorama Mohanty i/b. S.K. Srivastava & Co., for the respondent. ... CORAM : S.A. BOBDE, J. DATE : SEPTEMBER 04, 2008. P.C. 1. This is a petition for winding up under section 433 and 434 of the Companies Act, 1956. According to the petitioner, they supplied Benzene to the respondent in pursuance of an order for 600 metric tons for an aggregate price of Rs.1,00,80,000/-. The cheque issued by the company of the value of Rs.93.5 lakhs were all dishonoured, except one. The petitioner then demanded an amount of Rs.1,10,86,893/- being the outstanding payment. The respondent has not made the payment. 2. Before this Court, the defence of the company is that -: 2 :- Benzene supplied by the petitioner was not as per specification and had high water and ethyle benzene content. The learned counsel for the respondent relies on a letter dated 12.6.1997. In fact, according to the company, they have raised two debit notes at the value of about Rs.31,16,951/- and Rs.25,58,298/-. They, therefore, submit that there is a bona fide dispute. 3. Mr.Davar, the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the material supplied could not have been rejected since it was consumed by the company. On the other hand, according to the learned counsel for the company, only some of the goods were consumed because the substance had become volatile and the rest of the goods were not. According to the company, the defects in the goods were noticed during the process of consumption. All these are matters which would require proper investigation by way of a civil suit. 4. On the aspect of liability, the company has claimed that it has issued debit notes of a sum indicated above. The claim of the petitioner, however, is Rs.1,18,05,334/-. It appears that the balance of Rs.61,30,085/- is outstanding even after taking into account the debit notes. Hence, it would be expedient to direct the company to deposit a sum of Rs.60,00,000/- in this Court within a -: 3 :- period of eight weeks from today, failing which the Company Petition shall stand admitted and the petitioner shall advertise the petition in two local newspapers, viz., "Free Press Journal", "Maharashtra Times" and in the Maharashtra Government Gazette. The petitioner shall deposit an amount of Rs.10,000/- with the Prothonotary & Senior Master towards the publication charges within three weeks from the date of default with an intimation to the Company Registrar, failing which the petition shall stand dismissed for non-prosecution. 5. In case the said amount is so deposited as directed hereinabove, the Company Petition to stand dismissed and the petitioner to file a suit within a period of four weeks from the date of the communication of the deposit by the Advocate for the respondent to the Advocate for the petitioner. If such a suit is filed, then the deposit will go to the credit of the said suit. The Prothonotary & Senior Master, High Court, Bombay, to invest the said amount in Fixed Deposit of any Nationalised Bank for a period of three years initially and to renew the same from time to time till further orders. In the event the suit is not filed within the stipulated period, the company will be at liberty to withdraw the amount after the expiry of the aforesaid period. -: 4 :- S.A. BOBDE, J.