LexKASHINATH SANKARAPPA WANI versus NEW AKOT COTTON GINNING & PRESSING CO. LTD.
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s:c.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 1331 I would allow the appeal and the petition with costs. BY COURT: The appeal and the petition are dismissed. There will be no order as to costs. Appeal and Petition di.imissed. KASHINATH SANKARAPPA WANI v. NEW AKOT COTTON GINNING & PRESSING CO., LTD. (BHAGWkTI, J. L. KAPUR and GAJENoRAGADKAR JJ.) Limitation-Suit on deposit receipt-Acknowledgment of iiability-EUidence-Balance sheet obtained from Registrar of Companies-Admissibility-Presumption. of awthenticitu andi corr.ectness-Commercial Documents Evidence Act (XXX of 1939), s. 3(b). The appellant advanced various sums of money to the res- pondent, in lieu of which the respondent passed a deposit receipt for 12 months from August 1, 1939 to July 31, 1940. On June 16, 1944 the appellant filed a suit to recover the amount with in- terest on the allegation that the amount became due on May 17, 1941 when the demand for the amount was made and limita- tion for the suit expired on May 17. 1944 and the suit was filed on the reopening day of the Court thE>reafter. The appellant also relied upon the acknowledgments of his debt by the i:es- pondent in the resolution passed by the Board of Directors on May 20, 1941 and in the balance sheet of the respondent for the year 1940-41 dated October 10, 1941: Held, that the suit was barred by limitation as the monies due under the deposit receipt became payable on July :n, 1941 and as no 'agreement had been proved th<it the monies due under the deposit receipt were re-payable on demand. Held further, that limitation was not saved by tile alleged. acknowledgments. The resolution Qf the Board of Directors merely· proposed ·a settlement of a claim of the appellant, which, if accepted by the appe}lant, was to be placed before a general meeting of the share-holders. The resolution onfy referred to a past liability of the respondent to the appellant and it could not be construed 19ii8 K. IS. Srinii-a.san v. U·iii011. of India Bu•e J, 1958 February 18. 1958 KaahinatA Sanl:arappa Wani v. New Akol Collon Ginning &: PresMng Oo., Ltd. BluI/Jwati J. 1332 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1958] as an acknowledgment of the liability of tlte respondent unde~ the deposit recelipt in question. A copy of the balance sheet of 1940-41 obtained, from the Registrar of Companies which was tiled in the case was wrongly rejected by the High Court as inadmissible on the ground that no evidence was adduced to prove it. This copy was admissible under s. 3(b) of the Commercial "Documents Ev:iden0e Ao!. Under that section the Court could nlso raise a presumption as regards the balance sheet having been duly made by or under the appropriate authority or in regard to the statements con- tained therein. The presumption was not compulsory, but was discretionary with the Court. In the circumstances of this case. where there were facVions in the Company and the regularity of the meeting at which the balance sheet was passed was in dispute. the High Court would have been perfectly justified in not raising the presumption. Consequently, the acknowlerl11- meni in the balance sheet was of no avail to the appellant. CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 77 of 1954. Appeal from the judgment and decree dated August 25, 1949, of the former Nagpur High Court in First Appeal No. 91 of 1945 arising out of the judgment and decree dated July 31. 1945, of the Court of Second Additional District Judge, Akola in Civil Suit No. 7-B of 1944. C. B. Agarwa/a and Ratnaparkhi A. G. for the appellant. Veda Vyasa and Ganpat Rai, for the respondent. 1958. February 18. The following Judgment of the Court was delivered by BHAGWATI, J.-This appeal with a certificate under s. 109(a) read with s. 1 IO of the Code of Civil Procedure (Act V of 1908) is directed against the judgment and decree passed by the Nagpur High Court dismissing the appeal of the appellant and confirming the dismissal of his suit by the learned Second Additional District Judge, Akola. The appellant, who was the plaintiff in the trial court filed in the Court of the First Additional District Judge, Akola, Civil Suit No. ;:: of 1944 against the respondent a limited company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act of 1882, which owned a Ginning and Pressing Factory S.C.R. SUPREl\U~ COURT REPORTS 1333 and carried on business of ginning and pressing cotton a.t 1958 Akot in District Akola. ·KCUJhi'IUlf;h
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