1 ca382-10 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL CIVIL JURISDICTION COMPANY APPLICATION NO.382 OF 2010 IN COMPANY PETITION NO.357 OF 2009 ALONG WITH OFFICIAL LIQUIDATOR REPORT NO.99 OF 2010/LIQN.VIII J.Mahesh Kumar Petrochemicals Pvt. Ltd. .....Petitioners V/s. The Official Liquidator of Subhashri Extrusions Ltd. (In Liqn.) ....Respondent And Mr.Amrut Vasant Lalwani ....Applicant Mr.B.S. Naik i/b Mr.Sagar Kasar for the Applicant. Mr.Anil Patel i/b Mr.V.L. Shah for the Original Petitioners. Ms.Merlyn Monterio for the Secured Creditor. Mr.P. Rama Rao, Official Liquidator present. CORAM : S.J. VAZIFDAR, J. DATE : 17TH AUGUST, 2010. P.C. :- 1. The Official Liquidator has sought permission to make one more attempt to sell the property of the company by private treaty by displaying the notice on the web site of the High Court and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. 2. A former director of the company in liquidation has taken out the above company application for setting aside the orders dated 9.7.2009 and 23.9.2009 passed in the above company petition by which the company petition was admitted and thereafter ordered to be wound up. 2 ca382-10 3. The above company application is without any merit. The company though served, was absent when the company petition was admitted. The company was absent when the petition was allowed. The admission of the petition was duly advertised. The notice under rule 28 of the Company Court Rules, was returned when the mark “door locked/company closed”. There is nothing to indicate that the place where the notice under rule 28 of the said Rules was sought to be served was not the registered office of the company. The company cannot avoid service by merely locking its door. Thus the prayer for setting aside the order is rejected. 4. The Applicant has also prayed for an order permitting him to revive the Respondent company as per the draft scheme proposed by him as Annexure-1. Annexure-1 however, is missing. Mr.Naik, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Applicant does not even have a copy of Annexure-1. Even the terms of the scheme are not known to him. This is despite the fact that the matter has been adjourned on the previous occasion, at the request of the Applicant. The application in this regard therefore, cannot even be considered. It must therefore, be rejected. 5. The Applicant also sought an order staying the sale of the property of the company in liquidation. In the above facts, there is no warrant to stay the auction of the property. The Official Liquidator must proceed to sell the same as per the previous orders of this Court. 6. This brings me to the Official Liquidator Report. In a previous report, taken out by the Official Liquidator being OLR NO.99/2010/LIQN, the learned Judge by an order dated 8.4.2010 had fixed the reserve bid 3 ca382-10 and directed the Official Liquidator to invite offers from independent purchasers on as is where is basis. The Official Liquidator was directed to publish the notices in various newspapers. The secured creditor Abhyudaya Co-operative Bank Ltd. was directed to bear the advertisement expenses. On 7.7.2010, the notices were published in the newspapers. The last date of submission of offers was 26.7.2010. An offer was received one day later i.e. on 27.7.2010. The offer was opened by me on 29.7.2010. The earnest money deposit was deposited was only Rs.20,00,000/-. The highest offer is only a few thousand rupees more from the reserved price. The next offer is a few thousand rupees less than the highest bidders. The Official Liquidator has not filed the report as yet seeking confirmation of the sale in favour of the two bidders. The bidders do not wish to retain the earnest money deposited by them. 7. In the circumstances, the following order is passed :- (a). Company Application No.382 of 2010 is dismissed with costs fixed at Rs.5000/- to be paid within four weeks from today. (b)(i). The Official Liquidator’s Report is disposed of by granting the same as per the directions sought. Further the Official Liquidator shall also issue the notices as per the directions dated 8.4.2010. However, the advertisement shall be in Free Press Journal and Navshakti. (ii). The earnest money deposit shall be returned to the bidders forthwith.