Chandrachud, CJI.

(1) THESE three appeals by special leave arise out of a judgment of a division bench of the High court of Madras dated 6/10/1978 allowing an appeal against the judgment of a learned single Judge, dated 17/05/1978 in Company Petition 39 of 1977. The main contending parties in these appeals are: (i) the Needle Industries (India) Limited and (H) the Needle Industries-Newey (Indian Holdings) Limited. These two companies have often been referred to in the proceedings as the Indian Company and the English Company respectively, but it would be convenient for us to refer to the former as NIIL and to the latter as the Holding Company. The Holding Company has been referred to in a part of the proceedings as NINIH.

(2) IN Civil No. 2139 of 1978, which was argued as the main appeal, NIIL is appellant I while one T. A. Devagnanam is appellant 2. The latter figures very prominently in these proceedings and is indeed one of the moving spirits of this acrimonious litigation. He was appointed as a Director of NIIL in 1956 and as its Managing Director in 1961. He is referred to in the correspondence as TAD or Theo but we prefer to call him Devagnanam. T