Continuing offence doctrine limits Companies Act filing defaults where breach ends on the due date and limitation still applies.

Defaults in filing annual returns and balance-sheet documents under the Companies Act were held not to be continuing offences, because the breach was complete on expiry of the statutory filing period. The court applied the principle that a continuing offence exists only where the obligation itself persists and liability renews from day to day until compliance. The language prescribing a fine for each day of continued default was treated as a measure of punishment, not as creating continuity of the offence. As the complaints were filed after the ordinary six-month limitation period, they were barred by limitation and the proceedings were quashed.

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Issues: Whether the defaults in filing annual returns and balance-sheet documents under the Companies Act constituted continuing offences so as to avoid the bar of limitation under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Analysis: The default alleged under sections 159 and 162, as well as the default under section 220(1) of the Companies Act, was complete on the expiry of the statutory time for filing. A continuing offence requires a failure that continues until compliance, with liability recurring from day to day. The penalty language in section 162, providing a fine for every day during which the default continues, was treated as only the measure of punishment and not as creating a continuing offence. Applying the governing principle on continuing offences, the complaints filed after the statutory six-month period were beyond limitation.

Conclusion: The defaults were not continuing offences, the complaints were barred by limitation, and the proceedings were quashed in favour of the petitioner.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory default is not a continuing offence merely because the penal provision prescribes an enhanced daily fine for continued default; continuity must arise from the nature of the obligation itself, and where the offence is complete on the last date for compliance, prosecution is subject to the ordinary limitation period.

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