Interference with the possession of the Liquidator and disposal of assets in contempt of court is punishable under the Companies Act, 1956, Section 446.

S. U. KAMDAR, J.

( 1 ) THE present show cause notice was issued against Rajeev m. Dixit for breaking open the lock and seal of the Official Liquidator which was placed on the premises of a company under Liquidation. Some of the material facts of the present case are as under:

( 2 ) IN the said company petition, on 5. 6. 96 in company application No. 182 of 1996 the liquidator was appointed as Provisional Liquidator in respect of machinery described in Exhibit (A) and (C ). However, since it was not possible to separately identify those machineries nor was it possible to keep the said machineries separately the Liquidator with a view to safeguard the said properties locked the factory premises. On 10. 6. 98 the Liquidator sealed the said premises and took possession thereof.

( 3 ) SUBSEQUENTLY the State Bank of India, Juhu Tara Road Branch, Mumbai filed a suit being Suit No. 4593 of 1997 in this Court and a Court Receiver, high Court, Mumbai was appointed as Receiver in favour of the Bank. The applicants in Company Application No. 40 of 2002 are claiming that under hire Purchase Agreement dt. 5. 11. 93 executed by and between the applicants as well as the company known as Rohan Stampings India (P) Ltd. , some of the machineries were given on hire purchase to the said company M/s. Rohan stampings India (P) Ltd. The case of the applicants is that the machineries/ equipments with fittings, tools, accessories and additions as described in First schedule to the said agreement was agreed to be let out to the company by the applicants who were the owners thereof. The said machineries were worth rs. 4,28,575/- and the company agreed to repay the said amount in monthly instalments as specified in the agreement alongwith various finance charges and other amounts set out therein.

( 4 ) IN view of the defaults in repayment of amounts of instalments under the said two hire purchase agreements dt. 5. 11. 93 the applicants became entitled to possession thereof of the said accessories. In view of the fact that Provisional liquidator was appointed as Liquidator in respect of the said plant and machinery the applicants took out the present application for handing over possession of the various machineries to the applicant which according to them belonged to them. Under the said two hire purchase agreements dt. 5-11-93 in the Application No. 40 of 2002 the applicants has prayed that the Liquidator be directed to release the machinery and hand over possession thereof to the applicants forthwith of the following machineries: (i) 1 No. Electramatic CNC Retrofited HMT Vikram Lathe (ii) 1 No. Generating Set Capacity 50 kva (50 HP)

( 5 ) IN the said company application an ad interim order came to be passed on 5. 11. 02 by which the Liquidator was directed to give inspection of the machineries described in the said prayer (a ). The said order was not complied with. Subsequently, by an order dt. 30-8-02 the learned Single Judge of this court directed the Liquidator to hand over papers and proceedings in Suit No. 4593 of 1997 filed by State Bank of India to the applicant. It seems that when the Official Liquidator went to the premises for the purpose of giving the inspection of the said machinery it was found that the premises are locked by third party and possession is taken over by said third party. Accordingly by order dt. 28. 1. 05 I directed the Official Liquidator to break open the lock of the premises. I also directed that before breaking open the lock the Official liquidator will give notice to the company and to the petitioner along with the applicants. It was further directed that Official Liquidator will also give notice to the Government Valuer and keep the valuer present for the purpose of immediate inventory. It was provided in the order that they will take inventory of the machinery in question which is the subject-matter of the present application and the said machineries will be identified and report to that effect will be made to t