M/s.Sundaram Finance Ltd., a public limited company engaged in the business of financing by hire purchase and otherwise is the petitioner in this original petition under Article 226. The respondents were originally (1) the revenue recovery Tahsildar, Kollam

(2) the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (3) the Sun Refineries (P) Ltd., Kollam represented by its Director one D.Ravindran and (4) the State of Kerala. Later one R. Kumaresan, R.Ganesh Sundar and D.Raveendran, Directors of Sun Refineries

(P) Ltd. were impleaded as additional respondents 5 to 7. The case of the petitioner is that in the course of its business the third respondent approached them for finance and as a consequence, hire purchase agreements were entered into in respect of the machineries detailed in the hire purchase agreement. The third respondent agreed to abide by all the terms of the hire purchase agreement and under these agreements an amount of nearly more than Rs.37 lakhs is due to the petitioner company from the third respondent by way of instalment. According to the petitioner, besides the hire purchase agreement an additional letter of guarantee, guaranteeing payment of the amounts due under the hire purchase agreements was also executed in favour of the third respondent. It is stated that the directors of the third respondent company created a mortgage by deposit of title deeds relating to the properties belonging to the Directors themselves personally and these properties are situated in Sy. Nos. 7316, 7317 and 7318 of Thrikkadavoor Village within the limits of Thrikkadavoor Panchayat in Kollam District. The petitioner came to know that the third respondent had already borrowed money from the 2nd respondent KSIDC in respect of the machineries which are subject to the hire purchase agreement in their favour. While matters stood so, the first respondent revenue recovery Tahsildar came forward with a plea that large amounts are due to it by way of salestax arrears from the third respondent to the 4th respondent State of Kerala. The grievance of the petitioner is that the first respondent in spite of the mortgage of the immovable properties by deposit of title deeds in petitioner's favour claimed priority under section 26B of the Amended Kerala General Sales Tax Act, 1963. Petitioner points out that the mortgage in their favour was executed as early as 25-8-1994 and a substantial portion of the sales tax arrears allegedly due to the Government arose much later than 25-8-1994 when the mortgage in favour of the petitioner was executed. The petitioner relies on section 2C of the Act (Amended Kerala General Salestax Act, 1963) and contends that the liability of the Directors of the Company are subject to the provisions of the Companies Act in respect of liability to tax. The third respondent's liability, it is pointed out, is not unlimited, but it is limited only to the assets of the company. It is contended that the property belonging to the Directors personally cannot be proceeded against for the alleged arrears of salestax because there is no provision in the Memorandum of Articles of Association of the third respondent company indicating unlimited liability. The Articles of Association of the Company is produced by the petitioner along with I.A. No.10408 of 2006. The Articles of Association does not say that the liability of the Directors is unlimited. Petitioner relies on Section 322 of the Companies Act and contends that section 26C of the Amended Kerala General Salestax Act will not be attracted and that the first respondent is not entitled to place reliance on the same. The petitioner also submits that based on the mortgage the petitioner company filed O.S.107 of 1997 on the files of the Sub Court, Kollam and obtained a decree against the third respondent for recovery of a sum of Rs.26,84,254.81 with interest at 23% per annum. It is submitted that to the above judgment and decree the Directors of the third respondent compa