, THE 1886. INDIAN COMPANIES ACT, VI. OF 1882. WITH NOTES AND TABLE SHOWING THE CORRESPONDING SECTIONS IN THE ENGLISH ALSO NOTES OF INDIAN DECISIONS AND LATEST ENGLISH CASES, AND AN APPENDIX CONTAINING THE SECTIONS IN THE INDIAN ACTS RELATING TO ACT XXI. OF 1860; AND THE PRESIDENCY BANKS' PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE EDUCATION SOCIETY'S PRESS, BYCULLA. PREFACE. THE object of this Book is merely to form a convenient guide to the Indian Companies' Act VI. of 1882. The English cases contained in it were begun to be collected shortly after the publication of that Act, and although the subsequent appearance of the Fourth Edition of Mr. Buckley's well-known work rendered the collection of those cases here unnecessary, it was deemed desirable to retain them as they originally were. Every endeavour has been made not to plagiarise that work, to which, however, the present author's obligations will be found apparent throughout. The author has, it is hoped, noticed every decision bearing on Companies which is reported in the Indian Reports. The Indian Companies' Act VI. of 1882 contains hardly anything that is not to be found in the English Companies' Acts of 1862 and 1867, and one or two sections of the English Companies Act, 1877, as will be seen on reference to the Table of corresponding sections herein. Table A of the present Act corresponds precisely with Table A to the English Act, 1862, and Act X. of 1866 in India; but in article 57 (p. 228 herein) a slight addition is made. The present Act, however, contains several new provisions and additions, the following of which are the most important, viz.:In sec. 58 (p. 49), the insertion of the words "fraudulently or." To sec. 61 (pp. 53-54), the addition of explanations. To sec. 68 (p. 62), the addition of the explanation there. In sec. 88 (p. 78), a modification of the comprehensiveness of that section (which corresponds with sec. 38 of the English Act, 1867). The additions and explanations to sec. 131 (pp. 103, 104). The addition to sec. 141 (p. 118), and proviso to sec. 146 (p. 123). The addition to section 174 (p. 139), to sec. 204 (p. 160), to sec. 212 (p. 165), to sec. 214 (p. 167). Two new sections (218, 219), which provide for the reference of a winding-up to a District Court and the transfer of a winding-up from one District Court to another, are to be found at pp. 172, 173. At p. 195, sec. 249, which prohibits a Company from buying its own shares, is also new. It is much to be regretted that no attempt has been made in this Act te prohibit or put some practical legislative restraint on what has become in Bombay, at all events, a most mischievous abuse of the powers of the Agents of Companies, who are generally styled the Secretaries, Treasurers, and Agents. In that Presidency it has become the constant practice to insert in the Articles of Association provisions for the employment of a firm or of individuals as Agents of the Company, at a high and often an exorbitant remuneration, for a long term of years, or for life, or even in perpetuity. The persons interested under these provisions contrive to keep sufficient shares under their control to prevent the passing of a special resolution to alter these provisions, and the result is not unfrequently that the Company's interests are sacrificed to those of its employés, of whom the shareholders are unable to get rid, however great and well-deserved their dissatisfaction. The attempt, in article 57 (p. 228), to prevent one firm getting the management of a Company too much into its own hands, is not likely to be successful, inasmuch as the articles can be altered by special resolution. The references to the corresponding sections in the English Act, 1862, and Indian Act, 1866, and to the corresponding articles in Table A to those Acts, are printed in red ink, and references will also be found to the sections in Act XIX. of 1857. Cases decided by the Court of Appeal in England are referred to in the Reports as Ch. Div. or Q. B. Div., as the case may be. No new rules have as yet been published by any of the High Courts in India; it was therefore deemed desirable to print the existing rules of the Bombay High Court and the Forms thereto, pointing out at the foot of each the particulars in which they differ from the general orders of November 1862 in England, and the Bengal rules respectively. The Appendix contains, it is hoped, all the sections in the various Indian Acts relating to Companies. L. P. R. |