E. PADMANABHAN, J.

The present petition has been filed under section 433(e) praying this court to wind up the respondent-company as it is unable to pay its debts.

The respondent is a public company, whose authorised capital is Rs. 2 crores and the subscribed share capital is Rs. 1, 35, 23, 400 and the paid up share capital is Rs. 1, 35, 23, 400. The respondent-company is a manufacturer of fasteners (bolts and nuts) for the automobile industries.

The petitioner is a sole proprietary concern, engaged in the manufacture of corrugated boxes and the same were supplied to the respondents-company for the purpose of packaging, under Invoices Nos. 7298, 7457, 7557, and 7558, respectively on October 11, 1999, November 18, 1999, December 7, 1999, and on December 4, 1999. The petitioner supplied the corrugated boxes in all aggregating to the value of Rs. 42, 544. The boxes were supplied as per the orders placed by the respondent-company. As per the invoices, the respondent has to pay interest at 24 per cent. for the belated payment. The respondent-company is liable to pay Rs. 42, 544 being the value of boxes supplied and Rs. 7, 658 being the interest for the belated payment for the period January 1, 2000, to September 30, 2000, totalling to Rs. 50, 202. According to the petitioner, the respondent had failed and neglected to pay the said sum. The petitioner made a demand on May 10, 2000, and June 2, 2000, which demands were acknowledged by the respondent. The petitioner caused a legal notice on June 23, 2000. But the acknowledgment card has not been returned. The petitioner addressed the Superintendent of Post Office who after verification certified that the registered notice had been delivered on the respondent-company on June 24, 2000. Even for the said statutory notice, no reply had been received, nor payments been made by the respondent. Thereafter, the present company petition was filed on November 1, 2000, and taken on file on November 13, 2000.This court ordered notice regarding admission on November 17, 2000. The respondent has been served. The respondent also entered appearance through counsel. The respondent took time on four different occasions to file counter. Ultimately, on June 25, 2001, the respondent filed its counter. The respondent took time to file documents and the matter was listed on four different occasions. Ultimately, the company petition was taken up for hearing.

According to the respondent as set out in the counter, the winding up petition is neither maintainable in law nor on facts and is liable to be dismissed in limine. The petition under section 433(e) is not maintainable as no notice has been served on the registered office of the respondent-company. The respondent states that it employs 300 employees and it has also secured ISO 9002 certificate supplying fasteners to reputed companies like Maruti, Telco, Ashok Leyland and Mahindra and Mahindra. The petitioner used to supply corrugated boxes to the respondent which were used for packing and transported to customers. The quality of the boxes is vital for the transport of the respondent's products. The respondent states that they received a number of complaints from the transporters and also from the customers that their products are damaged in transit due to the substandard quality boxes supplied by the petitioner. The respondent had repeatedly communicated to the petitioner about the complaints received and the poor quality of corrugated boxes supplied by them. Despite the same, the petitioner had not corrected the deficiency in the quality. The respondent called upon the petitioner to meet the respondent's managing director to discuss the quality problem and payment. But the petitioner had failed to do so and not even the respondent to the said request for better quality. The petitioner was put on notice about the quality problem in its letters dated November 29, 1999, October 23, 1999, January 7, 2000 and June 3, 2000. The petitioner was called upo