( 1 ) THESE petitions, being C. P. 60/81, C. P. 15/8 3, C P. 102/83, C. P. 117/83, C. P. 47/84, C. P, 59/84 and C. P. 84/84, by different creditors, seeking to wind up several companies, on the ground of their deemed inability to pay the debts, forming subject-matter of the petitions, raise a common question, if a claim which became barred by time during the pendency of a petition at the show cause stage, could be a legitimate basis for winding up proceedings, even if it was within time when the petition was filed.

( 2 ) DURING the hearings of the matter on the aforesaid common question, some of the learned Counsel, appearing for the creditors or the companies concerned, did not maintain the distinction between "maintainability" of a petition, the "locus standi of a creditor and the extinction of the remedy on the claim becoming out of time. It is, therefore, necessary at the outset to clear the ground for a proper consideration of the common question.

( 3 ) THE distinct terms "right" and the "remedy" to enforce it are conceptually, as well as qualitatively, different. When a claim becomes barred by time under the law of limitation, the remedy is extinguished but t