Companies Act 1948

General Provisions with respect to Memorandum and Articles.

20 Effect of memorandum and articles.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the memorandum and articles shall, when registered, bind the company and the members thereof to the same extent as if they respectively had been signed and sealed by each member, and contained covenants on the part of each member to observe all the provisions of the memorandum and of the articles.

(2) All money payable by any member to the company under the memorandum or articles shall be a debt due from him to the company, and in England be of the nature of a specialty debt.

21 Provision as to memorandum and articles of companies limited by guarantee.

(1) In the case of a company limited by guarantee and not having a share capital, and registered on or after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and one, every provision in the memorandum or articles or in any resolution of the company purporting to give any person a right to participate in the divisible profits of the company otherwise than as a member shall be void.

(2) For the purpose of the provisions of this Act relating to the memorandum of a company limited by guarantee and of this section, every provision in the memorandum or articles, or in any resolution, of a company limited by guarantee and registered on or after the date aforesaid, purporting to divide the undertaking of the company into shares or interests shall be treated as a provision for a share capital, notwithstanding that the nominal amount or number of the shares or interests is not specified thereby.

22 Alterations in memorandum or articles increasing liability to contribute to share capital not to bind existing members without consent.

Notwithstanding anything in the memorandum or articles of a company, no member of the company shall be bound by an alteration made in the memorandum or articles after the, date on which he became a member, if and so far as the alteration requires him to take or subscribe for more shares than the number held by him at the date on which the alteration is made, or in any way increases his liability as at that date to contribute to the share capital of, or otherwise to pay money to, the company:

Provided that this section shall not apply in any case where the member agrees in writing, either before or after the alteration is made, to be bound thereby.

23 Power to alter conditions in memorandum which could have been contained in articles.

(1) Subject to the provisions of the last foregoing section and of section two hundred and ten of this Act, any condition contained in a company's memorandum which could lawfully have been contained in articles of association instead of in the memorandum may, subject to the provisions of this section, be altered by the company by special resolution:

Provided that if an application is made to the court for the alteration to be cancelled, it shall not have effect except in so far as it is confirmed by the court.

(2) This section shall not apply where the memorandum itself provides for or prohibits the alteration of all- or any of the said conditions, and shall not authorise any variation or abrogation of the special rights of any class of members.

(3) Subsections (2), (3), (4), (7) and (8) of section five of this Act (except paragraph (b) of the said subsection (2)) shall apply in relation to any alteration and to any application made under this section as they apply in relation to alterations and to applications made under that section.

(4) This section shall apply to a company's memorandum whether registered before or after the commencement of this Act.

24 Copies of memorandum and articles to be given to members.

(1) A company shall, on being so required by any member, send to him a copy of the memorandum and of the articles, if any, and a copy of any Act of Parliament which alters the memorandum, subject to payment, in the case of a copy of the memorandum and of the articles, of one shilling or such less sum as the company may prescribe, and, in the case of a copy of an Act, of such sum not exceeding the published price thereof as the company may require.

(2) If a company makes default in complying with this section, the company and every officer of the company who is in default shall be liable for each offence to a fine not exceeding one pound.

25 Issued copies of memorandum to embody alterations.

(1) Where an alteration is made in the memorandum of a company, every copy of the memorandum issued after the date of the alteration shall be in accordance with the alteration.

(2) If, where any such alteration has been made, the company at any time after the date of the alteration issues any copies of the memorandum which are not in accordance with the alteration, it shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one pound for each copy so issued, and every officer of the company who is in default shall be liable to the like penalty.