TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2020 (1) TMI 1674
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....t the petitioners herein in respect of non-payment against the four dishonoured cheques for the total amount of Rs. 16,00,00,000/- (Rupees Sixteen crores only) issued on behalf of and/or by petitioner company in favour of the respondent company. 3. The Metropolitan Magistrate vide his order dated 19.12.2017 held as follows: "From perusal of complaint and documents attached, prima facie offence U/s. 138 r/w Section 141 of NI Act, 1881 is made out. Accordingly, cognizance of offence is taken. CW-01 AR of complainant, Sh. Manav Arora has tendered pre-summoning evidence by way of affidavit. At the request of AR of complainant, PSE is closed. Heard on issuance of process. Material on record suggest sufficient ground to proceed further. Accordingly, issue summon to the accused, subject to filing PF/RC within thirty days from today. Summons be sent for service through all permissible modes. Put up for further proceeding on 25.09.2018." 4. The petitioners feeling aggrieved invoked the revisional jurisdiction of the Court of Sessions and questioned the correctness, legality and proprietary of the said order. But their criminal revision petition bearing No. 231/2019 was dismissed....
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....n 482 of the Code since it may amount to circumvention of provisions of Section 397(3) or Section 397(2) of the Code." 8. In Kailash Verma vs. Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation & Anr., (2005) 2 SCC 571, the Supreme Court observed thus:- "5. It may also be noticed that this Court in Rajathi v. C. Ganesan [ (1999) 6 SCC 326 : 1999 SCC (Cri.) 1118] said that the power under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code has to be exercised sparingly and such power shall not be utilised as a substitute for second revision. Ordinarily, when a revision has been barred under Section 397(3) of the Code, the complainant or the accused cannot be allowed to take recourse to revision before the High Court under Section 397(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code as it is prohibited under Section 397(3) thereof. However, the High Court can entertain a petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code when there is serious miscarriage of justice and abuse of the process of the court or when mandatory provisions of law are not complied with and when the High Court feels that the inherent jurisdiction is to be exercised to correct the mistake committed by the revisional court." (emphasis s....
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....issa v. Ram Chander Aggarwal, (1979) 2 SCC 305 : AIR 1979 SC 87, Rai Kapoor v. State (Delhi Administration) 1980 Cri. L.J. 202, Krishnan v. Krishnaveni and Kailash Verma v. Punjab State Civil Supplies Corporation (2005) 2 SCC 571." (emphasis supplied) 11. Now coming to the other legal position in this case and taking into consideration the various provisions of Cr.P.C. which have been discussed in various judgments time and again demonstrate that the Negotiable Instruments Act, provides sufficient opportunity to a person who issues the cheque. Once a cheque is issued by a person, it must be honoured and if it is not honoured, the person is given an opportunity to pay the cheque amount by issuance of a notice and if he still does not pay, he is bound to face the criminal trial and consequences. It is seen in many cases that the petitioners with malafide intention and to prolong the litigation raise false and frivolous pleas and in some cases, the petitioners do have genuine defence, but instead of following due procedure of law, as provided under the NI Act and the Cr.P.C., and further, by misreading of the provisions, such parties consider that the only option available to them ....
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....used has a defence against dishonour of the cheque in question, it is he alone who knows the defence and responsibility of spelling out this defence to the Court and then proving this defence is on the accused. Once the complainant has brought forward his case by giving his affidavit about the issuance of cheque, dishonour of cheque, issuance of demand notice etc., he can be cross-examined only if the accused makes an application to the Court as to, on what point he wants to cross examine the witness(es) and then only the Court shall recall the witness by recording reasons thereto. 14. Sections 143 and 145 of the NI Act were enacted by the Parliament with the aim of expediting trial in such cases. The provisions of summary trial enable the respondent to lead defence evidence by way of affidavits and documents. Thus, an accused who considers that he has a tenable defence and the case against him was not maintainable, he can enter his plea on the very first day of his appearance and file an affidavit in his defence evidence and if he is so advised, he can also file an application for recalling any of the witnesses for cross-examination on the defence taken by him. 15. In view of th....