Section 138 cheque complaints cannot be thrown out for technical overwriting or minor amount discrepancies when evidence is needed.

In a Section 138 Negotiable Instruments Act complaint, a cheque was not liable to be rejected at the threshold merely because the date showed overwriting or the amount in words appeared discrepant. The court treated the notice, return memo and cheque together and found that they consistently reflected the same cheque liability, with the omission in words appearing to be inadvertent and the bank having treated the cheque as one for the stated amount. Such objections were held to raise issues requiring evidence, so discharge on these technical grounds was unsustainable and the complaint had to proceed to trial.

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Issues: Whether the accused could be discharged in a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 on the grounds that the cheque showed overwriting in the date and a discrepancy between the amount written in figures and words, allegedly rendering the statutory notice invalid.

Analysis: The legal notice had clearly demanded the cheque amount, and the discrepancy in the words portion appeared to be an inadvertent omission of the word "thousand" rather than a different transaction amount. The cheque, the return memo, and the notice read together showed that the amount in dispute was the same cheque amount, and the bank itself treated the cheque as one for Rs. 4,65,000/-. The alleged overwriting in the date was also not treated as a material interpolation at the stage of discharge. In a prosecution under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, such objections could not be used to defeat the complaint at the threshold when the matter required evidence and trial.

Conclusion: The discharge was unsustainable. The complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 was required to proceed to trial, and the accused was not entitled to discharge on the technical grounds raised.

Ratio Decidendi: A complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 should not be rejected at the threshold on a mere technical discrepancy in the cheque amount or a non-material overwriting when the statutory notice and surrounding documents show a prima facie claim requiring trial.

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