(1)In a winding up, subject to the provisions of section 326, there shall be paid in priority to all other debts,—(a)all revenues, taxes, cesses and rates due from the company to the Central Government or a State Government or to a local authority at the relevant date, and having become due and payable within the twelve months immediately before that date;(b)all wages or salary including wages payable for time or piece work and salary earned wholly or in part by way of commission of any employee in respect of services rendered to the company and due for a period not exceeding four months within the twelve months immediately before the relevant date, subject to the condition that the amount payable under this clause to any workman shall not exceed such amount as may be notified;(c)all accrued holiday remuneration becoming payable to any employee, or in the case of his death, to any other person claiming under him, on the termination of his employment before, or by the winding up order, or, as the case may be, the dissolution of the company;(d)unless the company is being wound up voluntarily merely for the purposes of reconstruction or amalgamation with another company, all amount due in respect of contributions payable during the period of twelve months immediately before the relevant date by the company as the employer of persons under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, 1948 (34 of 1948) or any other law for the time being in force;(e)unless the company has, at the commencement of winding up, under such a contract with any insurer as is mentioned in section 14 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 (8 of 1923), rights capable of being transferred to and vested in the workmen, all amount due in respect of any compensation or liability for compensation under the said Act in respect of the death or disablement of any employee of the company:Provided that where any compensation under the said Act is a weekly payment, the amount payable under this clause shall be taken to be the amount of the lump sum for which such weekly payment could, if redeemable, be redeemed, if the employer has made an application under that Act;(f)all sums due to any employee from the provident fund, the pension fund, the gratuity fund or any other fund for the welfare of the employees, maintained by the company; and(g)the expenses of any investigation held in pursuance of sections 213 and 216, in so far as they are payable by the company.
