Mr. Justice J.D. Kapoor, President—Appellant having suffered the impugned order dated 12.1.1998 to make the payment of Rs. 17,627/- towards the value of 500 shares purchased by it from the respondent and interest @ 15% payable from 1.3.1996, has directed this appeal. The appellant had given offer to the shareholders of the company in compliance with the Stock Exchange Leasing Guidelines/Agreement and Security and Exchange of India and in pursuance of the said offer the respondent sold 500 shares to the appellant company along with transfer deed. Instead of making the payment of the value of the shares the appellant returned them. According to the appellant, due to the time taken during the process of transfer of shares it could not pay the amount in time and returned the shares to the appellant vide letter dated 28.3.1996 and, therefore, was wrongly held guilty for deficiency in service.

2. We have perused the open offer floated by the appellant, the offer opened on 1.2.1996 and closed on 29.2.1996. The relevant extracts of the offer are as under :

The Offer

(1) This offer is being made to the Equity Shareholders of SNL whose names appears in the Register of Members of SNL as on