Role of Official Liquidator

In general sense, liquidator is a person who conducts the whole process of liquidation. When a company is about to wind up it is required to realise the assets of the company and it should be distributed among the “debenture holders”, “creditors” “shareholders” etc. For this purpose a person is appointed who does all the required things before the company “cease to exist”. This person is called Liquidator under Company Law. So liquidator comes into scene in the time of winding up of a company. The process of winding up can be two types. These are following below: 1. Compulsory winding up; 2. Voluntary winding up.Official liquidator is appointed in the time of compulsory winding up. The Official liquidator is the officer of high court. He is appointed from the date of the order of the winding up. He has certain duties to perform under the Companies Act and he has to do all the required things in respect of compulsory winding up of a company according to the instruction of the high court. In this project I have discussed the role of official liquidator. I have divided this paper into five chapters. Chapter1 deals with introduction. I made a detailed study on Official Liquidator in the second chapter, where I have discussed the provisions regarding official liquidator in detail.I have analyzed the powers of official liquidator with reference to compulsory winding up of companies in the third chapter of this paper. Under this chapter, I, have also discussed the conflict between sections 457 (2) and 457 (3). The role of official liquidator will be discussed in the fourth chapter. In that chapter I have discussed the role of official liquidator in the light of the Madras high court decision. Finally I made a conclusion in the last part.