Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Srikumar Menon vs The State Of West Bengal & Anr on 4 April, 2017
1 04/04/2017
ARDR CRR 3141 of 2011 Srikumar Menon Vs. The State of West Bengal & anr.
Mr. Ayan Bhattacharjee, Mr. Anjan Datta, Mr. Ledric Fernandez, Ms. Shreya Singh, ...for the petitioner.
Ms. Hasi Saha, ...for the R.O.C. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submitted that the complaint case filed against him is bad in law because it is barred by limitation. He further submitted that initially the complainant has sent a notice to him mentioning that there is violation of Section 211 and 217 of the Companies Act. The period mentioned in the notice relates to the financial year ending on 31st March, 2005; 31st March, 2006; 31st March, 2007 and 31st December, 2007 respectively.
According to him, the moment the balance sheet is furnished with the Registrar of Companies, period of limitation shall be counted from that day. In support of such submission, he has referred to a decision reported in 1991 SCC Madras 532. After getting such show-cause notice, he has given a reply elaborately mentioning that no illegality has been done by them. 2 The opposite party could not establish the reason for filing such case at a belated stage. The learned trial court also could not consider it in its proper perspective.
Accordingly, this criminal revisional application stands allowed in part in respect of the financial year ending on 31st March, 2005; 31st March, 2006; 31st March, 2007 and 31st December, 2007.
Prosecution may be permitted to go on in respect of the balance sheet filed on 31st December, 2008. However, the present petitioner is at liberty to raise all the issues available to him before appropriate forum so far as the balance sheet filed on 31st December, 2008 is concerned.
I like to make clear that there is misquoting of Section 277(2) by the learned Magistrate himself. It ought to be Section 211 (7) of the Act.
Let a copy of this order and the entire lower court record, if any, be sent down to the learned court below accordingly.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if applied for, be given to the parties.
(Siddhartha Chattopadhyay, J. )