Presumptive service of statutory notice under NI Act must follow the ordinary course of post, not an arbitrary short interval.

For a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, service of a statutory demand notice sent by registered post is presumed in the ordinary course under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, unless the contrary is proved. The presumption cannot be fixed at an artificially short period, such as 24 to 48 hours, merely because the parties reside in the same city. Applying that principle, notice issued on 18.12.2017 was treated as deemed served on 17.01.2018, so the complaint filed thereafter was within limitation and could not be rejected as time-barred.

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Issues: Whether the complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 was wrongly treated as time-barred on the assumption that service of the statutory notice sent by registered post could be presumed within a few days of dispatch, rather than within a reasonable period under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897.

Analysis: The statutory scheme under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 requires notice of demand, followed by failure to pay within the prescribed period. Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897 creates a presumption of service where a notice is properly addressed, prepaid and sent by registered post, and the presumption operates in the ordinary course of post unless the contrary is proved. The Court applied the principle that service by post cannot be presumed within an artificially short period merely because the parties resided in the same city. It relied on the settled rule that presumptive service is to be assessed in the ordinary course and that a complaint cannot be rejected as time-barred by assuming service within 24 to 48 hours without legal basis. On the facts, the notice issued on 18.12.2017 was treated as deemed served on 17.01.2018, and the complaint filed thereafter was within limitation.

Conclusion: The complaint was not time-barred, and the order dismissing it on limitation grounds was unsustainable.

Ratio Decidendi: For a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, service of a statutory notice sent by registered post must be presumed in the ordinary course under Section 27 of the General Clauses Act, 1897, and cannot be fixed at an arbitrarily short period without evidence.

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