Mukundakam Sharma, J.

( 1 ) THE present petition is filed by the petitioner company praying for an order that the respondent company is indebted to the petitioner and that it is unable to pay its debt as it has become commercially insolvent.

( 2 ) THE petitioner is a subsidiary of Motorala Inc. The petitioner is a supplier of telecom equipments to various Government departments and Public Sector undertakings etc. The respondent is a trader of telecom equipment and used to purchase telecom equipments from the petitioner and sell the same to its customers. The telecom equipments were shipped by the petitioner to the respondent on the basis of the purchase orders issued by the respondent for the same. During the course of its business with the respondent, the petitioner supplied and delivered telecom equipments of certain quantities at agreed prices to the respondent and raised invoices for the telecom equipments supplied, which were duly accepted. The said equipments were used and utilised by the respondent and at no stage the respondent raised any dispute either with regard to quality or standard of such equipments supplied by the petitioner to the respondent. It is stated that as per the records of the petitioner, the respondent is indebted to the petitioner for a principal sum of Rs. 18,42,155. 28p for the supplies made. In addition, interest at the rate of 2% per month till the date of payment is also due a and payable.

( 3 ) THE respondent issued two cheques in favour of the petitioner dated 1st march, 2001 for a sum of Rs. 5,40,800/- and Rs. 2,16,830. 80p. towards part payment of the dues payable to the petitioner. The said cheques when presented to the bank were dishonoured by the bank. The petitioner issued two notices dated 23. 3. 2001 under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, which were replied to by the petitioner by letter dated 7. 4. 2001. Part of the amount due and payable to the petitioner is also reflected from the balance sheet of the respondent dated 31st march, 2001 filed with the Registrar of Companies and to that extent the dues are admitted. As against Item No. 7 in the list of Sundry Creditors an amount of Rs. 15,21,766/- is admitted as due and payable to the petitioner. A legal notice was issued by the petitioner to the respondent on 22nd March, 2002 under Sections 433 and 435 of the Companies Act. The said notice was duly served upon the respondent company for an amount of Rs. 18,42,155. 28p. with interest at the rate of 2% per month from the due date of payment till realisation. The respondent did not send any reply to the aforesaid notice even in spite of receipt of the same. Accordingly, the present petition was filed in this Court praying for the aforesaid relief.

( 4 ) THE respondent has filed a reply to the petition filed by the petitioner, taking up a stand that the aforesaid amount is not legally due and payable as the petitioner did not have a valid licence to deal with the aforesaid goods on the date when the aforesaid supplies were made to the respondent. It was submitted by the Counsel appearing for the respondent that since the petitioner did not have a valid licence when the aforesaid supplies were made to the respondent, the demand made by the petitioner is void in view of the provisions of Section 23 of the Indian Contracts Act and, therefore, the petition is liable to be dismissed.

( 5 ) I may, therefore, proceed to deal with the objection i. e. raised by the respondent regarding maintainability of the present petition. The objection is that the petitioner did not have a valid licence under the Indian Telegraph Act and the rules made thereunder to make any supplies of the telecom equipments on the date when the aforesaid supplies were made to the respondent and, therefore, the dues, even if there be any, cannot be said to be legally recoverable dues.

( 6 ) I have given my anxious consideration to the aforesaid plea raised by the respondent. The aforesaid plea came to be raised

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