2024 (4) TMI 669

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....Bakhira, District Sant Kabir Nagar, pending in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sant Kabir Nagar within stipulated period. 3. On the perusal of the record it appears that this Court vide order dated 20.03.2024 directed to learned AGA that in case the opposite party no. 2 was not arrested in pursuance of the N.B.W. issued in complaint case no. 10260 of 2022 then the S.P. concerned will file his personal affidavit. In compliance of this order an affidavit dated 04.04.2024 was filed by the Sub Inspector Jhamai Lal posted at P.S. Bakhira, District Sant Kabir Nagar. In paragraph nos. 4,5 and 6 of the affidavit it has been mentioned that the opposite party no. 2 has been arrested on 21.03.2024 and produced before the court below thereaf....

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....in Rajesh Agarwal v. State and another (2010) ILR 6 Delhi 610. Directions 23. Many of the directions given by the various High Courts, in our view, are worthy of emulation by the Criminal Courts all over the country dealing with cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, for which the following directions are being given :- 23.1. The Metropolitan Magistrate/Judicial Magistrate (MM/JM), on the day when the complaint under Section 138 of the Act is presented, shall scrutinize the complaint and, if the complaint is accompanied by the affidavit, and the affidavit and the documents, if any, are found to be in order, take cognizance and direct issuance of summons. 23.2. The MM/JM should adopt a ....

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....e, direct all the criminal courts in the country dealing with Section 138 cases to follow the above-mentioned procedures for speedy and expeditious disposal of cases falling under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Writ Petition is, accordingly, disposed of, as above." 6. The Apex Court in the case of In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 of the Act, 1881, reported in 2021 SCC Online 325 has already issued following directions for expeditious trial u/s 138 of the Act, 1881 as under:- 24. The upshot of the above discussion leads us to the following conclusions: 1) The High Courts are requested to issue practice directions to the Magistrates to record reasons before converting trial of complaints....

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....ion 322 of the Code to revisit the order of issue of process in case it is brought to the court's notice that it lacks jurisdiction to try the complaint. 7) Section 258 of the Code is not applicable to complaints under Section 138 of the Act and findings to the contrary in Meters and Instruments (supra) do not lay down correct law. To conclusively deal with this aspect, amendment to the Act empowering the Trial Courts to reconsider/recall summons in respect of complaints under Section 138 shall be considered by the Committee constituted by an order of this Court dated 10.03.2021. 8) All other points, which have been raised by the Amici Curiae in their preliminary report and written submissions and not considered herein....