TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2008 (6) TMI 549
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....Court on 12.2.2001. Thereafter, the fourth respondent herein (third accused) filed a petition under section 482 Cr.PC for quashing the proceedings. The fourth respondent contended that he could not be arrayed as an accused as the cheque was issued by the third respondent in his individual capacity. The High Court allowed the said petition on a different ground, by order dated 21.8.2002, and quashed the complaint as against the fourth respondent. It held that the complaint was not signed by the payee, that is, the sole proprietor of the payee concern, but was signed by his Power of Attorney Holder and that was not permissible. 3. The said order of the High Court is challenged in this appeal by special leave. By interim orders dated 28.11.2003 and 2.4.2004, this Court stayed the operation of the order of the learned Single Judge and directed that the case should be proceeded with. 4. The question that arises for our consideration is whether the complaint under section 138 of the Act signed by a Attorney holder is not maintainable. 5. Section 190 of Code of Criminal Procedure ('Code' for short) enables a Magistrate to take cognizance of an offence upon receiving a complaint of fact....
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....mpany." (Emphasis supplied) Referring to the decision in Associated Cement Co. Ltd. v. Keshvanand [1998 (1) SCC 687], this Court held : "It has further been held that no Magistrate shall insist that the particular person, whose statement was taken on oath at the first instance, alone can continue to represent the company till the end of the proceedings. It has been held that there may be occasions when different persons can represent the company. It has been held that it is open to the de jure complainant company to seek permission of the court for sending any other person to represent the company in the court. Thus, even presuming that initially there was no authority, still the company can, at any stage, rectify that defect. At a subsequent stage the company can send a person who is competent to represent the company. The complaints could thus not have been quashed on this ground." 7. The payee of the cheque is M/s Shankar Finance & Investments. The complaint is filed by "M/s Shankar Finance & Investments, a proprietary concern of Sri Atmakuri Sankara Rao, represented by its power of Attorney Holder Sri Thamada Satyanarayana". It is therefore evident that the complaint is in ....
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....es so as the agent of the grantor and the initiation is by the grantor represented by his attorney holder, and not by the attorney holder in his personal capacity. Therefore where the payee is a proprietary concern, the complaint can be filed : (i) by the proprietor of the proprietary concern, describing himself as the sole proprietor of the 'payee'; (ii) The proprietary concern, describing itself as a sole proprietary concern, represented by its sole proprietor; and (iii) the proprietor or the proprietary concern represented by the attorneyholder under a power of attorney executed by the sole proprietor. It follows that in this case the complaint could have been validly filed by describing the complainant in any one of the following four methods : "Atmakuri Shankara Rao, sole proprietor of M/s. Shankar Finance & Investments" Or "M/s. Shankar Finance & Investments a sole proprietary concern represented by its proprietor Atmakuri Shankara Rao" Or "Atmakuri Shankara Rao, sole proprietor of M/s. Shankar Finance & Investments, represented by his Attorney Holder Thamak Satyanarayana" Or "M/s. Shankar Finance & Investments, a proprietary concern of Atmakuri Shankara Rao, represent....
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.... A. B. Rama Murthy, Hindu, aged about 65 years), having its office at Flat No.3B, Third Floor, Maharaja Towers. Vishakhapatnam - 3 represented by its Power of Attorney Holder Sri Thamada Satyanarayana, S/o Late Adinarayana, Hindu, aged 50 years, Service, residing at MIG-B-230, Sagarnagar, VUDA Layout, Vishakhapatnam - 43." The said description is proper and therefore, the complaint has been duly filed by the payee. 12. The High Court has referred to the fact that the sworn statement before the learned Magistrate was of the attorney holder of the payee and not by the payee in person. According to the tenor of the order of the High Court, this was also irregular. But we find nothing irregular in such a procedure. It is now well settled that the object of section 200 of the Code in providing for examination of the complainant and his witnesses by the court is to satisfy itself about the existence of a prima facie case against the person accused of the offence and to ensure that such person is not harassed by false and vexatious complaints by issue of process; (See Nirmaljit Singh Hoon v. State of West Bengal - 1973 (3) SCC 753). Where the proprietor of the proprietary concern has pe....