2021 (7) TMI 1035

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....s Act, 1881 (for short, 'N.I. Act') wherein the trial Court took cognizance of the offence after condoning the delay in filing the complaint. 3. For the sake of convenience, the parties in this petition are referred to as per their status and ranking before the Trial Court. 4. Brief facts of the case are that the respondent herein filed the private complaint in PCR No. 105/2020 against the accused alleging commission of offence punishable under Section 138 of N.I. Act. It is stated that towards discharge of legally recoverable debt, accused issued the Cheque bearing No. 297084 dated 21.03.2020 for Rs. 4,00,000/- drawn on State Bank of India, Branch Navalgund. The said Cheque was presented for encashment on 15.05.2020 and the same ....

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....hable under Section 138 of the N.I. Act and proceeded to take cognizance of the offence. Accordingly, C.C. No. 1479/2020 came to be registered and accused is summoned to appear before the Court. 6. The petitioner is before this Court challenging the impugned order dated 04.12.2020 condoning the delay in filing the complaint and taking cognizance for the above said offence. 7. Heard Sri Namadev Seetaram Badiger, learned counsel for petitioner and Sri Jagadish Patil, learned counsel for respondent. 8. Learned counsel for petitioner submits that all sequence of the dates mentioned above disclose the Cheque in question was dishonoured as per the endorsement dated 16.05.2020. The legal notice was not served on the accused till 04.08.2020. Sub....

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....the order passed by the trial Court contended that since there was lockdown till 30.06.2020, the legal notice could not be served on the accused. He also submitted that the accused has deliberately avoided the service of notice and only after issuance of 4th legal notice i.e., on 04.08.2020, the notice could be served on the accused. The complaint was came to be lodged on 26.08.2020. The delay in lodging the complaint is explained by filing an application seeking condonation of the same. On consideration of the said application and the averments made in the complaint, the trial Court has rightly condoned the delay and proceeded to take cognizance of the offence. If at all the accused wants to take defence regarding limitation, he can raise ....

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....s settled position of law that there must be application of mind before taking cognizance of the offence by the Court when there are several dates of events as mentioned above. The impugned order does not speak that the Court has taken the said events into consideration before proceeding to pass the impugned order. Therefore, I deem it proper to set aside the impugned order and to remand the matter for fresh consideration by the trial Court keeping in mind the various dates of events mentioned in the complaint in the light of the order passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the suo motu writ petition. The trial Court is at liberty either to take cognizance after condoning the delay or to reject the complaint after assigning specific reason....