TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1999 (5) TMI 580
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....S. dollars (equivalent to more than 26 lakhs of rupees) towards the sale consideration of several consignments of materials despatched to the appellant on the orders placed. After much correspondence and negotiations appellant company issued some post dated cheques on State Bank of India (California ARTESIA Branch). Three of such cheques were presented on 3-5-1996 after those cheques attained maturity, for encashment through Bank of Madurai, Bangalore Branch. Two cheques were returned dishonoured with the reason no sufficient funds. On receipt of such intimation respondent sent a notice to the appellant company by fax on 11-6-1996. On the next day the respondent sent the same notice by registered post also which was served on the appellant on 25-6-1996. On 8-8-1996 respondent filed a complaint before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Bangalore in respect of cheque No.188 dated 20-11-1995 (for 5998.40 US dollars) and another cheque No.187 (with which the present appeal is not concerned). The Metropolitan Magistrate, after receiving the complaint on file took cognizance of the offence and issued process to the....
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....bsp; from taking cognizance of the offence if the complaint was not filed within one month of the date on which the cause of action arose. Completion of the offence is the immediate forerunner of rising of cause of action. In other words cause of action would arise soon after completion of the offence, and the period of limitation for filing the complaint would simultaneously start running. To circumvent the above hurdle, respondent submitted that 15 days can be counted only from 25-6-1996 the date when appellant received the notice sent by registered post, and the cause of action would have arisen only on 11-7-1996. The complaint which was filed on 8-8-1996 is therefore within time, according to the learned counsel for the respondent. The above controversy could have been averted if respondent had filed the complaint on any day between 11^th and 26th of July, 1996, because any date during that interregnum would have been good either when the fax message is treated as the notice or when the registered notice is treated as the required intimation. Hence, on the facts of the case, the real point in controversy is, when did the cause of ....
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....o make a demand for payment. The mode of making such demand is also prescribed in the clause, that it should be by giving notice in writing to the drawer of the cheque. Nowhere it is said that such notice must be sent by registered post or that it should be despatched through a messenger. Chapter XVII of the Act, containing Sections 138 to 142, was inserted in the Act as per Banking Public Financial Institution and Negotiable Instruments Laws (Amendment) Act, 1988. When the legislature contemplated that notice in writing should be given to the drawer of the cheque, the legislature must be presumed to have been aware of the modern devices and equipment already in vogue and also in store for future. If the court were to interpret the words giving notice in writing in the section as restricted to the customary mode of sending notice through postal service or even by personal delivery, the interpretative process would fail to cope up with the change of time. Facsimile (or Fax) is a way of sending hand-written or printed or typed materials as well as pictures by wire or radio. In the West such mode of transmission came to wide use even way back in the late 1930s. By 1954 Internati....
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....terdict incorporated in Section 142 of the Act that, no court shall take cognizance of any offence unless the complaint is made within one month of the date on which the cause of action arises, would become otiose. In this context the decision of a two Judge-Bench in Sadanandan Bhadran vs. Madhavan Sunil Kumar [1998 (6) SCC 514] can be referred to. A payee did not file the complaint within 45 days of sending the notice after the cheque was bounced back, but he presented the cheque once again thereafter and issued another notice. When a new cause of action arose on the strength of the second presentation of the cheque a complaint was filed by the payee on the strength of that second presentation of the cheque. This Court has stated the law in that case as follows: Consequent upon the failure of the drawer to pay the money within the period of 15 days as envisaged under clause (c) of the proviso to Section 138, the liability of the drawer for being prosecuted for the offence he has committed arises, and the period of one month for filing the complaint under Section 142 is to be reckoned accordingly. The combined reading of the above two sections of the Act leaves no room for do....