Continuing offence doctrine: late filing of company accounts was a completed default, so criminal complaint was time-barred.

Failure to file the balance sheet and profit and loss account within the time prescribed by the Companies Act, 1956 was treated as a completed default on expiry of the due date, not a continuing offence. Applying the test for continuing offences, the court noted that the statute did not make the continued non-compliance itself a distinct penal wrong, and a daily fine provision did not by itself extend limitation. As the complaint was filed long after the offence was complete, cognizance was barred by limitation under the Criminal Procedure Code, and the saving provision for delayed proceedings was not attracted.

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Issues: Whether the prosecution for failure to file the balance sheet and profit and loss account within the time prescribed by Section 220(1) of the Companies Act, 1956 was a continuing offence so as to save limitation under Sections 472 and 473 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.

Analysis: The obligation under Section 220(1) required filing within the prescribed time, and default attracted punishment under Section 220(3) read with Section 162(1) of the Companies Act, 1956. Applying the principles governing continuing offences, the determinative test was whether the statute made the continued non-compliance itself an offence or whether the offence was completed once and for all on expiry of the due date. The statutory scheme did not make running the company's business without filing the returns an offence, nor did it provide that the default continued as a distinct penal wrong until compliance. The daily fine mentioned in Section 162(1) did not by itself convert the default into a continuing offence. Since the complaint was instituted long after the default had become complete, Section 468 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 barred cognizance, and Section 473 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 was not attracted on the facts.

Conclusion: The offence was not a continuing offence and the complaint was barred by limitation.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory default is a continuing offence only when the enactment makes the continued non-compliance itself punishable; a mere default completed on the due date does not become continuing merely because the penalty is expressed with reference to each day of default.

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