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15. In this background, let us scrutinise the rival contentions of the parties. There is no common law right on the part of a member to vote by proxy, but, by statute, any member of a company entitled to attend and vote at a meeting, including a meeting of any class of members, is entitled to appoint another person (whether a member or not) as his proxy to attend and vote instead of him, and a proxy appointed to attend and vote instead of a member of a private company will also have the same right as the member to speak at the meeting. Unless the articles provide to the contrary, however, this provision does not apply to a company not having a share capital, not can a member of a private company a[[pint more than one proxy to attend on the same occasion. Section 176 of the companies Act is the relevant provision relating to proxies. It lays down that any member of a company entitled to attend and vote at a meeting of the company shall be entitled to appoint another person (whether a member or not) as his proxy to attend and vote instead of himself; but a proxy so appointed shall not have any right to speak at the meeting.

18. The next issue should not detain the court any further. It is a settled proposition that if there are two or more proxies given by the same shareholder in respect of the same shares, the proxy bearing the latest date will supersede the earlier ones. If the proxies bear no date or bear the same date, both the provision would be ineffective. It is not disputed that the proxies which have been entertained were complete in all respects. The submission of learned counsel for the plaintiff that the date of the signatures of the shareholders on the proxy be considered as the date of the filling of the same in the registered office of the company is not convincing. Once the blank proxy without date has reached the hand of the appointee, it can safely be presumed that an authority was given to him to fill up the blanks with his own name or the name of any other person with date and to use the proxy for the purpose of voting at the meeting. The very object of sending of the proxies by interested persons to their friends and acquaintances is to obtain the friendly votes. If a shareholders signs the proxy in blank, it is his own fault, and he should be careful enough not to do so, Once the proxy has been properly filled up on a particular date by the person to whom it is entrusted, the later date has to be taken as the date of the signing of the proxy by the shareholder, even though another appointee may also be in possession of a blank proxy of the same shareholder, of a prior date. Learned counsel for the plaintiff has neither drawn my attention to any such rule nor has cited any authority in support of this submissions which prima facie has no substance.