2024 (5) TMI 1265
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....strict & Sessions Judge, South District, Saket Courts, New Delhi (in short, 'Revisional Court') in Criminal Revision Petition bearing No. 14/2024, titled Pawan Dhanpatrai Malhotra v. Mahender Khari, whereby the learned Revisional Court dismissed the said revision petition filed by the petitioner herein. 3. The above Revision Petition was filed by the petitioner, challenging the Order dated 16.04.2022 of the learned MM-01 South District, New Delhi in Complaint Case bearing No. 1398/2020, titled Mahender Khari v. Pawan Dhanpatrai Malhotra, dismissing the application filed by the petitioner under Section 219 of the Cr. P.C. The said complaint has been filed by the respondent herein under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (in....
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....g No. 5909 of 2023, titled A Adinarayana Reddy v. S. Vijayalakshmi & Anr.; and U-Turn v. State of Gujarat, 2024 SCC OnLine Guj 1427, submits that the offence is completed only when notice under proviso 'b' to Section 138 of the NI Act is given by the holder of the cheque to the drawer, and the drawer thereafter fails to make the payment within a period of 15 days of the receipt of the notice. He submits that it has been consistently held that where a single notice has been served on the drawer, it would be considered as a single offence and not multiple offences and, therefore, the rigours of Section 219 of the Cr. P.C. will not be attracted. 7. I have considered the submissions made by the learned counsels for the parties. 8. Section 219....
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....by an accused within a period of twelve months, can be tried together in one trial. 10. Section 138 of the NI Act provides for the penalty in case of dishonour of cheque for insufficiency of funds in the account of the drawer of the cheque. It reads as under: "138. Dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc. of funds in the account. Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other liability, is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arr....
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....e receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheque as unpaid. 12. In terms of Section 142(1)(b) of the NI Act, the complaint for an offence under Section 138 of the NI Act can be filed only upon the cause of action arising under clause (c) of the proviso to Section 138 of the NI Act, that is, where the drawer of the cheque fails to make the payment of the amount of the cheque to the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, within fifteen days of the receipt of the notice in terms of Proviso (b) to Section 138 of the NI Act. 13. In Sharma Contracts (supra), this Court rejected the challenge under Section 219 of the Cr. P.C. to the maintainability of the complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act f....
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.... single complaint for dishonour of multiple cheques was maintainable. 17. The High Court of Gujarat in U-turn (supra), placing reliance on the above judgment of the Karnataka High Court, has also rejected the similar plea of the accused. 18. As far as the Vani Agro Enterprises (supra) is concerned, it was a case where the complainant had filed four complaints and was seeking consolidation of the same. The Supreme Court observed that there is no provision in the Cr. P.C. providing for consolidation of cases. 19. Gaurav Mittal (supra) is only an ad interim order and cannot be treated a binding precedent on the issue. 20. I must however, also take note of the Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in Expeditious Trial of Cases Un....