M.P. Menon, J.

1. These are petitions under S.155 of the Companies Act for rectifying the register of members of the Teekoy Rubbers (India) Ltd., Palai. The petitioners belong to a well known family engaged mainly in the abkari business. They purchased 15,100 equity shares and 31,750 preference shares and applied for registration of the transfers, but the company refused to register them. And the prayer is to direct the company to enter the names of the transferees in its register of members in the place of the transferors.

2. The facts are identical in all the petitions and they have all been tried together, so that it is enough to refer to the pleadings in one of them. The Teekoy Rubbers (India) Ltd. is a public company limited by shares, with its registered office at Palai. The authorised capital is Rs. 16 lakhs, made up of 60,000 cumulative preference shares and 1,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each. The company is listed in the Madras Stock Exchange and its shares are quoted. Regulation.24 of the Articles, of Association of the company reads:

"The Board may, in their absolute discretion and without assigning any reason, decline to register - (a) the transfer of a share t