1. These are claims brought by the Official Liquidator under S.446 read with S.458-A of the Companies Act, 1956 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The Companies in liquidation in all these cases were engaged in the business of conducting chit funds. The respondents who had joined as subscriber in some of the kuries conducted by these Companies had been allowed to draw the amounts due on prized tickets in some of the chit fund series against promissory notes or mortgage bonds executed by them to secure due payment of the future instalments. Before all the instalments in these kuries had become due or were paid the Companies went into liquidation. In the course of the winding-up proceedings the Official Liquidator has preferred these claims against the respondents for recovery of the balances due from them under the prized chit accounts. The main contention put forward by the respondents is that they are entitled to a set-off in respect of amounts paid by them to the concerned Companies either by way of term deposits or by way of subscriptions (instalments) to other chits in which also they had joined and which had not been prized. In view of the importance of the comm