Section 339 of Companies Act, 2013 – Liability for fraudulent conduct of business

  • Updated Till : December 05, 2024

SECTION 339. LIABILITY FOR FRAUDULENT CONDUCT OF BUSINESS

[Effective from 9th September, 2016 (to the extent of their applicability to Section 246), complete section effective from 15th December, 2016]

(1) If in the course of the winding up of a company, it appears that any business of the company has been carried on with intent to defraud creditors of the company or any other persons or for any fraudulent purpose, the Tribunal, on the application of the Official Liquidator, or the Company Liquidator or any creditor or contributory of the company, may, if it thinks it proper so to do, declare that any person, who is or has been a director, manager, or officer of the company or any persons who were knowingly parties to the carrying on of the business in the manner aforesaid shall be personally responsible, without any limitation of liability, for all or any of the debts or other liabilities of the company as the Tribunal may direct:

Provided that on the hearing of an application under this sub-section, the Official Liquidator or the Company Liquidator, as the case may be, may himself give evidence or call witnesses.

(2) Where the Tribunal makes any such declaration, it may give such further directions as it thinks proper for the purpose of giving effect to that declaration and, in particular,—

(a)   make provision for making the liability of any such person under the declaration a charge on any debt or obligation due from the company to him, or on any mortgage or charge or any interest in any mortgage or charge on any assets of the company held by or vested in him, or any person on his behalf, or any person claiming as assignee from or through the person liable or any person acting on his behalf;

(b)   make such further order as may be necessary for the purpose of enforcing any charge imposed under this sub-section.

(3) Where any business of a company is carried on with such intent or for such purpose as is mentioned in sub-section (1), every person who was knowingly a party to the carrying on of the business in the manner aforesaid, shall be liable for action under section 447.

(4) This section shall apply, notwithstanding that the person concerned may be punishable under any other law for the time being in force in respect of the matters on the ground of which the declaration is to be made.

Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,—

(a)   the expression “assignee” includes any person to whom or in whose favour, by the directions of the person liable, the debt, obligation, mortgage or charge was created, issued or transferred or the interest was created, but does not include an assignee for valuable consideration, not including consideration by way of marriage, given in good faith and without notice of any of the matters on the ground of which the declaration is made;

(b)   the expression “officer” includes any person in accordance with whose directions or instructions the directors of the company have been accustomed to act.

 

7 responses to “Section 339 of Companies Act, 2013 – Liability for fraudulent conduct of business”

  1. To the corporatelawreporter.com webmaster, Thanks for the well-researched post!

  2. Hi to all, since I am genuinely eager of reading this webpage’s post tto
    be updated daily. It carries nice stuff.

  3. Des services experts pour tous vos projets de jardinage :
    Travauxonline.com répond à tous vos besoins !

  4. Dante says:

    As the admin of this web site is working, no uncertainty
    very soon it will be renowned, due to its quality contents.

  5. Monic says:

    A fascinating discussion is worth comment. I do believe that you ought to write more about this subject matter, it might not be a taboo matter but typically people do not discuss these topics. To the next! Cheers!!

  6. Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and
    I’m impressed! Extremely useful info particularly the last part
    :) I care for such information much. I was seeking
    this certain information for a long time. Thank you and best
    of luck.

  7. Jia says:

    Having read this I thought it was extremely informative.
    I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this article together.
    I once again find myself personally spending a lot of time both reading and leaving comments.
    But so what, it was still worthwhile!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Corporate Law Referencer

Corporate Law Referencer

Corporate Law Referencer

India’s Leading Compliance Software

India’s Leading Compliance Software

Get A Demo Today !

Recent Articles

Recent Legal updates

Recent Gst Updates