Companies Act, 1956
Sec 42 -
Membership of holding company.
(1) Except in the cases mentioned in this
section, a body corporate cannot be a member of a company which is its holding
company and any allotment or transfer of shares in a company to its subsidiary
shall be void.
(2) Nothing in this section shall apply :
(a) where the subsidiary is concerned as the
legal representative of a deceased member of the holding company; or
(b) where the subsidiary is concerned as
trustee, unless the holding company or a subsidiary thereof is beneficially
interested under the trust and is not so interested only by way of security for
the purposes of a transaction entered into by it in the ordinary course of a
business which includes the lending of money.
(3) This section shall not prevent a
subsidiary from continuing to be a member of its holding company if it was a
member thereof either at the commencement of this Act or before becoming a
subsidiary of the holding company, but except in the cases referred to in sub-section
(2), the subsidiary shall have no right to vote at meetings of the holding
company or of any class of members thereof.
(4) Subject to sub-section (2), sub-sections
(1) and (3) shall apply in relation to a nominee for a body corporate, which is
a subsidiary, as if references in the said sub-sections (1) and (3) to such a
body corporate included references to a nominee for it.
(5) In relation to a holding company which is
either a company limited by guarantee or an unlimited company, the reference in
this section to shares shall, whether or not the company has a share capital,
be construed as including a reference to the interest of its members as such,
whatever the form of that interest.