Limitation for official liquidator claims: Section 458A excludes time only, it does not create a fresh limitation period.

Section 458A of the Companies Act, 1956 was construed as a time-exclusion provision, not as creating a fresh limitation period for an official liquidator. The running limitation on the company's cause of action is merely suspended from commencement of winding up proceedings until the winding up order and for one year thereafter, after which the balance period resumes. The cause of action does not shift to the official liquidator, and section 446(2)(d) does not generate an additional period under Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963. On the facts, the recovery claim was time-barred.

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Issues: Whether, in computing limitation for a recovery claim by an official liquidator on behalf of a company in winding up, section 458A of the Companies Act, 1956 excludes only the specified period or also gives rise to a fresh period of limitation in favour of the official liquidator, and whether the claim in question was time-barred.

Analysis: Section 458A was construed as a provision for exclusion of time and not as a provision creating a new or fresh period of limitation. The limitation already running on the company's cause of action is merely suspended for the period from commencement of winding up proceedings until the winding up order and for one year thereafter, after which the remaining period resumes. The cause of action does not shift to the official liquidator, and no fresh cause of action or additional three-year period under Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 becomes available merely because the official liquidator proceeds under section 446(2)(d) of the Companies Act, 1956. On the facts, the original limitation period had expired long before the application was filed.

Conclusion: Section 458A does not confer a fresh limitation period on the official liquidator. The recovery claim was barred by limitation.

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