TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (9) TMI 644
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....fault term of six months' further imprisonment. Although the Learned Appellate Court was graciously pleased to set aside the substantive sentence of imprisonment, it unfortunately upheld the conviction and the heavy compensatory fine of Rs. 2,00,000/-. Being aggrieved by this mechanical and superficial appreciation of statutory law and evidence, the petitioner has knocked on the doors of this Court under Section 397 read with Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, urging that penal sanctions have been wrongfully weaponized to validate a fabricated financial claim where no genuine underlying debt ever existed. 2. The foundational genesis of this litigation traces back to a private complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act by the opposite party no. 1, Kallol Biswas, against the petitioner, which came to be registered as C.R. Case No. 15C of 2016 before the court of the Learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Krishnagar. The complainant's case, set forth in his petition of complaint, was that he had advanced a friendly cash accommodation loan of Rs. 1,20,000/- to the petitioner, and that towards the discharge of this purported liability, the petition....
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....t as an eyewitness to the alleged loan transaction and the handing over of the cheque, thereby attracting a severe adverse inference under Section 114(g) of the Indian Evidence Act that the witness would have exposed the falsehood of the claim. 7. Additionally, Mr. Jana submitted that the petitioner successfully discharged his reverse onus by rebutting the statutory presumption through consistent testimonies of DW-1 and DW-2 (including the petitioner's mother, a pensioner), establishing on a preponderance of probabilities that no such transaction transpired, and that the appellate court erred in drawing adverse conclusions from the petitioner's summary answers during his examination under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, losing sight of the settled legal position that an accused's summary examination cannot cure foundational lacunae or lack of independent proof in the prosecution's case, which must stand entirely on its own legs. Therefore, he prayed for setting aside of the impugned judgment and orders. 8. Per contra, Mr. Sumanta Ganguly, the Ld. Advocate for the Opposite Party (Complainant) supports the concurrent findings, submitting that the ....
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....l to reappreciate evidence unless there is gross perversity, illegality, or misreading of evidence, none of which exist here, especially since the appellate court took a lenient view by modifying substantive imprisonment into a compensatory fine. Therefore, he prayed for the dismissal of this revision. 13. Having heard the learned counsel for the competing parties and perused the lower court records, the primary question for determination is whether the concurrent findings of conviction suffer from patent perversity, illegality, or a gross misreading of evidence, particularly concerning the rebuttal of statutory presumptions, the proof of a legally enforceable debt, and the withholding of a material witness? 14. The resolution of this criminal revision hinges upon a careful harmonization of statutory presumptions, the standard of rebuttal in criminal jurisprudence, and the foundational requirement of a legally enforceable debt under the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881. The legal architecture governing cheque dishonour cases is anchored primarily in Sections 118(a) and 139 of the NI Act, which mandate that every negotiable instrument is presumed to have been drawn for conside....
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....enticity of the transaction. In the factual matrix of the present case, both lower courts committed a patent illegality by entirely overlooking this shifted burden. The complainant asserted the advancement of a cash loan of Rs. 1,20,000/- yet failed to produce a single bank statement, receipt, or shred of documentary proof demonstrating his financial capacity to lend such an amount. 17. Furthermore, the legal implications surrounding signatures on blank or inchoate cheque leaves must be evaluated through the lens of Bir Singh (supra) wherein the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that while filling in the particulars of a signed blank cheque is permissible under Section 20 of the NI Act, the foundational premise of Section 139 still presumes that the instrument originated from a legitimate transaction and a genuine underlying debt, holding as follows: "If a signed blank cheque is voluntarily presented to a payee, towards some payment, the payee may fill up the amount and other particulars. This in itself would not invalidate the cheque. The onus would still be on the accused to prove that the cheque was not in discharge of a debt or liability by adducing evidence... Even a blan....