( 1 ) ONE Mr. S. N. Bhalla claiming himself to be the creditor of M/s Soldier united Motor Transport Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as the company) filed CP No. 64/1978 seeking winding up of the company on the ground that the company owed a debt of Rs. 62,380. 65 paise which it was unable to pay. The amount claimed by the petitioner was on account of arrears of rent in respect of the premises bearing No. C2/13, Vasant Vihar, new Delhi let out by the petitioning creditor to the company at a rental of rs. 1,800/- per month with effect from 7th July, 1974 for the residence of one of its directors. In this petition, winding up order dated 3rd August, 1979 was passed. This order reads as under:

"the petition for winding up of Soldiers United Motor Transport company (P) Limited must succeed on the short ground that the only asset of the Company consists of certain route permits and the Company is admittedly unable to pay its debts and has indeed failed to pay to the petitioning creditor in spite of a number of opportunities that there given for that purpose. A cheque that was last handed over to counsel for the petitioner has bounced. Shri Khanna who appears for the Company is, therefore, unable to oppose an obvious order of winding up by prays that it may be in a position to make arrangement to pay the petitioning creditor, even though he admits that appropriate directions may be made so that till the winding up order comes into effect, the status quo is maintained with reference to the permits and whatever other assets the company may possibly hold. Having regard to all the circumstances, I direct that the Company be wound up in accordance with law. However, the order would not be effective for a period of one month and if the company pays to the petitioning creditor or otherwise compounds with him the claim forming subject-matter of the petition, the winding up order would be deemed to have been rescinded and the petition treated as having been dismissed. The Company is restrained from in any manner alienating or transferring permits or any other office assets during this period. CP 64/78 is disposed of in these terms. There would be no costs. "

( 2 ) THE company could not pay the petitioning creditor the amount claimed by him for which one month period was granted by the aforesaid order and, therefore, winding up order came into effect.

( 3 ) THE registered office of the company was at 1/9b, Jindal House, Asaf ah Road, New Delhi. These are also rented premises and were taken on rent by the company from Mr. Suresh Jindal (hereinafter called as the landlord ). Much prior to filing of the winding up petition by Mr. Bhalla, the other landlord who had given residential premises to the company as noted above, mr. Jindal, landlord of the premises which was the registered office of the company, filed an eviction petition bearing No. E 485/1976 in the year 1976 for eviction of the company. It was filed under the provisions of Section 14 (1) (a) of the Delhi Rent Control Act, 1958 (for short the Rent Act ); the ground being non-payment of rent. This petition was disposed of by the additional Rent Controller (ARC) vide order dated 16th November, 1978 giving the benefit of Section 14 (2) of the Rent Act. By the said order the arc concluded that the company was in default with regard to the payment of rent non-payment of rent as the ground for eviction from the premises in question was made out. As one opportunity is provided by giving benefit to the tenants for the first default under Section 14 (2) of the Rent Act, this benefit was accorded and the company was not evicted.

( 4 ) IN the meantime, as mentioned above, in CP No. 64/1978, winding up order dated 3rd August, 1979 was passed. On the appointment of the official Liquidator (OL), he visited the registered office of the company on 8th November, 1980 and took the possession thereof. However, thereafter, ca NO. 465/1984 was filed by the former Managing Direct