Thanks Sushant for your reply.
The screen I have does not seem to have splitter shell. The first element I can get is the toolbar. Please note though that I got over this issue by scripting an extra 'Return' which will make the docked control disappear. Also just in case it does help to shed some light on this: I have been able to move docking controls in other applications by scripting properties like height and width, but this one (object wnd[0]/shellcont/shell) does have read/write properties but scripting does not seem to affect positioning.
thanks
stephan