Efforts afoot to make AJL non-profit

EGM in Lucknow on January 21 to convert AJL into a Section 8 firm

Even as Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi got bail in Delhi's Patiala House court on Saturday in connection with the National Herald case, the office of the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) - the publisher of the now-defunct daily National Herald - wore a deserted look.

Through an advertisement in a Hindi daily in Lucknow, AJL Managing Director Motilal Vora served a notice to its shareholders for holding an extraordinary general meeting (EGM), seeking to convert the organisation into a Section 8 company under the Companies Act 2013 and change its name.

The EGM is scheduled to be held in Lucknow on January 21.

According to the notice, "the board of the company has been considering for more than four years that the company should not be commercially motivated with a view to distribute any benefits or dividends to its members.

"It should, instead, operate and undertake its activities for the larger public good. As such, the Board has decided to take necessary steps to convert the company into a non-for-profit section 8 company under the Companies Act 2013."

When contacted, AJL Lucknow manager B P Kanaujia said: "I have myself come to know of the EGM from mediapersons."

SECTION 8 SAYS:

Under the Companies Act 2013, a Section 8 — earlier Section 25 — company or a trust, under the Registrar of Societies Act, can be established for “promotion of commerce, art, science, sports, education, research, social welfare, religion, charity, protection of environment or any such other object”, provided it “intends to apply its profits, if any, or other income in promoting” the objectives of the company. Shareholders of such a company are not entitled to receive any dividend.

What happens in case of liquidation
According to sub-section (9) of Section 8, “If on the winding up or dissolution of a company registered under this section, there remains, after the satisfaction of its debts and liabilities, any asset, they may be transferred to another company registered under this section and having similar objects, subject to such conditions as the Tribunal may impose, or may be sold and proceeds thereof credited to the Rehabilitation and Insolvency Fund formed under section 269.”

This means that the assets, after meeting debts and liabilities, could be transferred to another Section 8 company.

The assets could also be sold and the proceeds credited to the government’s Rehabilitation and Insolvency Fund. A Section 8 company could also be converted into a regular company after meeting some prescribed requirements under the companies’ law.