The phrase "enquiry pending under s. 16" in s. 22(1) of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1986 does not include a reference under s. 15.

Ruma Pal J :

1. The respondent filed an application for winding up Bengal Lamps Limited (hereinafter referred to as the Company). The petition was admitted by an order dated 6th March 1960 An appeal was preferred against the order by the company. This application has been filed in the Appeal for Stay of the order dated 9th March 1990. More than two months after the failing of the appeal a reference was made by the Company under s. 15 of the sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act,1986 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (hereinafter referred to as the Board) constituted under the Act. The reference has been registered by the Secretary of the Board under Regulation 19 of the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction Regulations 1987 (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations) on 25th June 1990. These facts were brought on record by way of a supplementary affidavit filed by the company.

2. The only question to be determined is• whether holder there circumstances the winding up proceedings against the company must be stayed under the provisions of s. 22(1) of the Act. No other point' has been put forward in support of the stay application on behalf of the company.

3. It is contended by Mr. H.K. Mitra appearing for the company, that the winding up proceedings must be stayed. In support of this contention the following submissions have been made :(i) Immediately upon the registration of the referenee an enquiry under s. 16 must be said to be pending within the meaning of s. 22(1) of the Act. According to Mr. Mitra after the registration of a reference under s. 15 the Board has no option but to hold an enquiry under s. 16 of the Act. It is argued by way of analogy that a suit is said to be pending when it is filed and not only when the Court takes up the suit for hearing. Similarly, according to him, an enquiry is pending when the reference is made and not only when the enquiry is in fact held.

(ii) It was further argued by Mr. Mitra that the preamble of the Act would indicate that the Act is a remedial measure for rehabilitation of Sick Companies and that (he object of the Act would be frustrated if the winding up proceedings were permitted to be continued after the reference was made and before the Board had an opportunity of considering the case. In support of this proposition reliance has been placed on a passage from' Maxwell on the Interpretation of Statutes (12 Edn.) p. 45 which reads as follows:

"If the choice is between two interpretations, the narrower of which would fail to achieve the manifest purpose of the legislation, we should avoid a construction which would reduce the legislation to futility and should rather accept the bolder construction based on the view that Parliament would legislate only for/the purpose of bringing about an effective result."

(iii) It is also contended by Mr. Mitra that in the event there was any doubt regarding the construction to be put on 55. IS, 16 and 22 of the Act, the doubt should be resolved in favour of the company on the principle that the Act is a beneficial piece of legislation. In support of this argument Mr. Mitra has relied upon a passage in Maxwell 00 The Interpretation of Statutes (Twelfth Edition) page 92 ;

"......... even where the usual meaning of the words falls short of the object of the legislature a more extended meaning may be attributed to them, if they are fairly susceptible of it ............ this relaxation of strictly literal principals of interpretation (has been referred to) as beneficial construction and the modern cases provide may instances of the judges reluctance to stand upon the letter of II statute. They will not, of course, supply omissions, but where they are faced with a choice between a wide meaning which carries out what appears to have been the object of the legislature more fully and a narrow meaning which carries it out less fully or not at all, they will often choose