Companies Act, 1956
Sec 53 - Service
of documents on members by company.
(1) A document may be served by a company on
any member thereof either personally, or by sending it by post to him to his
registered address, or if he has no registered address in India, to the
address, if any, within India supplied by him to the company for the giving of
notices to him.
(2) Where a document is sent by post:
(a) service thereof shall be deemed to be
effected by properly addressing, prepaying and posting a letter containing the
document, provided that where a member has intimated to the company in advance
that documents should be sent to him under a certificate of posting or by
registered post with or without acknowledgement due and has deposited with the
company a sum sufficient to defray the expenses of doing so, service of the
document shall not be deemed to be effected unless it is sent in the manner
intimated by the member; and
(b) such service shall be deemed to have been
effected :
(i) in the case of a notice of a meeting, at
the expiration of forty-eight hours after the letter containing the same is
posted, and
(ii) in any other case, at the time at which
the letter would be delivered in the ordinary course of post.
(3) A document advertised in a newspaper
circulating in the neighborhood of the registered office of the company shall
be deemed to be duly served on the day on which the advertisement appears, on
every member of the company who has no registered address in India and has not
supplied to the company an address within India for the giving of notices to
him.
(4) A document may be served by the company on
the joint-holders of a share by serving it on the joint-holder named first in
the register in respect of the share.
(5) A document may be served by the company on
the persons entitled to a share in consequence of the death or insolvency of a
member by sending it through the post in a prepaid letter addressed to them by
name, or by the title of representatives of the deceased, or assignees of the
insolvent, or by any like description, at the address, if any, in India
supplied for the purpose by the persons claiming to be so entitled, or until
such an address has been so supplied, by serving the document in any manner in
which it might have been served if the death or insolvency had not occurred.