Companies Act, 2013
331.
Liabilities
and rights of certain persons fraudulently preferred.
1. Where a company is
being wound up and anything made, taken or done after the commencement of this
Act is invalid under section 328 as a fraudulent preference of a person
interested in property mortgaged or charged to secure the company’s debt, then,
without prejudice to any rights or liabilities arising, apart from this
provision, the person preferred shall be subject to the same liabilities, and
shall have the same rights, as if he had undertaken to be personally liable as
a surety for the debt, to the extent of the mortgage or charge on the property
or the value of his interest, whichever is less.
2. The value of the
interest of the person preferred under sub-section (1 ) shall be determined
as at the date of the transaction constituting the fraudulent preference, as if
the interest were free of all encumbrances other than those to which the
mortgage or charge for the debt of the company was then subject.
3. On an application
made to the Tribunal with respect to any payment on the ground that the payment
was a fraudulent preference of a surety or guarantor, the Tribunal shall have
jurisdiction to determine any questions with respect to the payment arising
between the person to whom the payment was made and the surety or guarantor and
to grant relief in respect thereof, notwithstanding that it is not necessary so
to do for the purposes of the winding up, and for that purpose, may give leave
to bring in the surety or guarantor as a third party as in the case of a suit
for the recovery of the sum paid.
4. The provisions of
sub-section (3 ) shall apply mutatis mutandis in relation to
transactions other than payment of money.