NH Chan J:

The plaintiff is a private company. The defendant, which is now under receivership, is a co-operative society registered under the Co-operative Societies Act 1948. The name is misleading; it is not a bank at all.

On 7 April 1986, a member of the defendant co-operative society, who was also a director of the plaintiff company, took a loan of 20 million from the defendant co-operative society. The loan was secured by a charge on the plaintiff company's lands in favour of the defendant co-operative society as chargee.

The plaintiff's application before me is based purely on law. It asks for a declaration that the third party charge which was created by the plaintiff company in favour of the defendant co-operative society is void and unenforceable for contravening the prohibitions in s. 133 of the Companies Act 1965. Section 133, inter alia, prohibits a company from entering into a guarantee or providing any security in connection with a loan made to its director by any other person.

Before I proceed to consider the effect of s. 133 of the Companies Act, I find that it is necessary to make an examination of the position of the equivalent or similar provisions in th