TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (5) TMI 661
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....v. Mr. Shreyas Awasthi, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Chakravarty, Adv. Ms. Ripul Swati Kumari, Adv. Mr. Bhanu Mishra, Adv. Ms. Muskan Surana, Adv. Ms. Anvita Dwivedi, Adv. Ms. Lihzu Shiney Konyak, Adv JUDGMENT ANIRUDDHA BOSE, J. The common petitioner in these four petitions for special leave to appeal is a partnership firm dealing in iron and steel products. The petitioner has assailed a common judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Calcutta, by which the petitioner's appeal against acquittal of the first respondent in respect of offences under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881 ("1881 Act") has been dismissed. The petitioner, through its partner, Ramesh Kumar Gupta, had lodged four complaint cases under the aforesaid provisio....
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....case, the petitioner/complainant also relied upon the testimony of its partner, Ramesh Kumar Gupta. 3. The accused/respondent no.1 had taken the defence that the petitioner had not provided any financial assistance, but money was advanced to the accused/respondent no.1 for undertaking stock market related transactions through her account. She deposed as a defence witness and her specific stand in her examination-in-chief was that the complainant wanted to trade in the futures and options segment of the stock market and since the complainant did not want his family members to know about it, he had chosen to speculate through her account. Though the complainant was a partnership firm, by referring to the complainant using the pronoun "he" or....
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....arge of a legally enforceable debt. The accused/respondent no.1 came to be convicted by the Trial Court for commission of offence under Section 138 of the 1881 Act. The Trial Court found that she had failed to rebut the presumption contained in Section 118 read with Section 139 of the 1881 Act. 5. The First Appellate Court set aside this finding and acquitted the accused/respondent no.1. It found that the complainant/petitioner had failed to produce any document showing any loan transaction. In the opinion of the First Appellate Court, there was no proof of any loan transaction and the complainant/petitioner had also failed to prove handing over the cheques to it by the accused/respondent no.1. The First Appellate Court also took note of t....
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....urther submission of Mr. Ramchandran was that once the aforesaid factors were established, the complainant was not required to prove its debt, in the manner it is required to be proved in a civil suit and that in a situation of this nature, the burden of proof shifted to the respondent/accused. It was for the accused to show the preponderance of probabilities that the cheque was not issued in discharge of a valid debt and mere denial of existence of debt would not be sufficient to rebut the presumption of guilt cast upon the accused. The authorities relied on for these propositions were:- i. Oriental Bank of Commerce -vs- Prabodh Kumar Tewari [2022 INSC 832] ii. Kalamani Tex and Another -vs- P. Balasubramanian [(2021) 5 SCC 283] iii....
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....o.1, defended the judgment of the First Appellate Court, as also of the High Court. His submission was that the complainant/petitioner did not fulfil the requirement of being "a holder in due course", as no evidence was produced by the petitioner to show that the said cheques were issued in discharge of a legally enforceable debt and hence, he could not be a person who had, for due consideration, become the possessor of the cheques. He referred to the depositions made before the Trial Court, in support of his submission that the presumption under Section 139 read with Section 118 of the 1881 Act was not applicable in the case of the complainant/petitioner because such presumption stood effectively rebutted. He relied on the judgment of this....
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.... of the Constitution of India to interfere with concurrent findings of fact is not in question, when such findings are based on no evidence or are perverse. The question, we have to address thus, is as to whether the findings of the First Appellate Court and the High Court are on no evidence or perverse. Both these Courts have examined the evidence threadbare and in the opinion of these two fora, go against the complainant/petitioner. On the question as to whether the sum involved in the cheques was advanced in discharge of a legally enforceable debt or not, the petitioner has failed to show if any sum was advanced towards financial assistance. The High Court found that the debt/liability, in discharge of which, according to the petitioner,....