The main legal point established in the judgment is the liability of a company to be wound up under Section 433 (e) of the Companies Act, 1956, due to its failure to repay its debts to the investors.

( 1 ) THESE company petitions have been filed under Section 433 (b), (d), (e) and (f) of the companies Act, 1956 for winding up of the company known as M/s. Incan Mutual Fund Benefit limited and Incan Group of Companies (Incan Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited; Ratan micronutrients Limited; Vinayak Trading Pvt. Limited; Incan Construction Limited; Incan consultancy Services Limited; Deva Investment and Leasing Limited; Incan Mutual Benefit limited; and Incan International Limited) having their registered office at Incan Bhawan, b-1/37, Sector F, Kapoorthala, Aliganj, Lucknow.

( 2 ) THE petitioners case is that the petitioner No. 1, namely, Incan Employees Welfare association, is the Registered Association duly registered with the Registrar of Firms and societies at Punjab, Chandigarh and the other petitioners are either office bearers of the association or the individual investors. The members of the association deposited different amounts of money with M/s. Incan Mutual Fund Benefit Limited, which is the sister concern of m/s. Incan Group of Companies. The total of the sums invested by the members of the association in Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Ludhiana is approximately Rs. 51. 99 crores. M/s. Incan group of Companies with its above named sister concerns by way of lucrative offers collected lot of money from individual investors with a positive assurance that they will get very good returns. The company had opened many branches in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Union Territory Chandigarh. The main object of M/s. Incan mutual Fund Benefit Limited was lending and borrowing to and from its members and the investments were made in fertilizers, real estate as well as agro pharma plantations. The opposite-party No. 1 as on 31-12-1998 had deposits worth Rs. 7,200 lakhs and the maturity amount was approximately Rs. 8,200 lakhs. The opposite-party Nos. 1 and 2 purchased many properties across the country including a plot of 18,900 sq. ft. at 5, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, south Avenue, Under Havelock Road Scheme at Baraf Khana, Lucknow. The money, which the company received from the investors, was utilised in purchase of the said plot. There are certain other properties earned by the company. A few of them may be referred to as land measuring 36000 sq. ft. near Dalibagh Colony; 53 Bigha Farm House in village Kumrawan P. S. Itaunja; 22 bigha land near Negoha Lucknow Raibareilly Road; 14 Bigha land in Kundanganj and 8 Bigha land in village Kankaha Mohan Lal Ganj. These companies accepted deposits from the investors under various schemes, such as high Premium Fixed Deposit Scheme; monthly Recurring deposit Scheme; recurring Deposit Scheme; short Term Deposit; daily Deposit Scheme and saving Account. It is noteworthy that the opposite-parties 1 and 2 committed default in making repayment to its depositors/members the amounts deposited by them. According to a Valuation report prepared on 30-6-1998 by a registered chartered Engineers, Adjusters and Valuers, the opposite-party No. 1 as Chairman of the Incan Group of Companies own many other establishments, which are its sister concerns. A detailed list of such Incan Group of Companies is as follows :- (a) Incan Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited; (b) Ratan Micronutrients Limited; (c) Vinayak Trading Pvt. Limited; (d) Incan Construction Limited; (e) Incan Consultancy Services Limited; (f) Deva Investment and Leasing Limited; (g) Incan Mutual Benefit Limited; (h) Incan International Limited; and (i) Merit Pharmaceuticals Limited.

( 3 ) THE opposite-party Nos. 1 and 2 collected, by floating lucrative offers, huge deposits amounting to the tune of Rs. 7,760 lakhs but on demand by the depositors failed to repay their money. They, however, issued an advertisement, published in a local Hindi Daily on 25th october, 1999, giving a notice for the public that some executives were misrepresenting themselves for their own benefit as agents of the Incan G