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Prashant Mishra vs State of U.P. and Another — Cheque Dishonour | Allahabad HC (2024)

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Allahabad HC
2024
Prashant Mishra vs State of U.P. and AnotherPrashant Mishra v. State of U.P. and Another

Disposed

Prashant Mishra v. State of U.P. and Another

Allahabad HC21 Oct 2024A482/27444/2024

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

Trial court directed to conclude Complaint Case No. 2519 of 2019 within six months per Sections 143(2)/(3) NI Act; coercive measures permitted.

Issue for consideration

A

Neutral Citation No. - 2024:AHC:188894

Court No. - 79

Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 27444 of 2024

Applicant :- Prashant Mishra Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Deo Prakash Singh Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.

Hon'ble Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal,J.

Heard Sri Rishi Kr. Singh, Advocate (A/R0622/2022) holding brief of Sri Deo Prakash Singh, learned counsel for the applicant and Sri Kamlesh Kr. Tripathi, learned A.G.A. for the State.

The present application has been filed to direct the court below to expedite the Complaint Case No. 2519 of 2019 ( Prashant Mishra vs. Arun Kumar Singh ), under Section 138 N.I. Act, P.S. Sigara, District Varanasi, pending before A.C.J.M.-VIII, Varanasi within stipulated period.

Contention of learned counsel for the applicant is that though the complaint under N.I. Act was filed in the year 2019, but the trial could not yet be concluded. It is further submitted that as per Section 143(2) of N.I. Act, the trial for the offence under N.I. Act should be conducted on day to day basis and it is further provided u/s 143(3) that the trial should be concluded within six months from the date of filing of the complaint.

Issues for consideration

1 issue framed by the court

AI extract

1.
Whether the trial court should be directed to expedite conclusion of a pending Section 138 NI Act complaint within six months as per Sections 143(2)/(3).

Cases cited

Colour shows how this judgement treated each authority

AI extract

Indian Bank Association and others vs. Union of India and othersRelied on¶4
(2014) 5 SCC 590 · Who else cites this
In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 N.I. Act, 1881Relied on

Parties & counsel

AI extract

applicant
Prashant Mishra
other
Arun Kumar Singh

Coram

AI extract

Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal

Case details

As recorded by the court registry

Court: Allahabad HC
Decided on: 21 Oct 2024 · October
Registered: 16 Aug 2024
Case no.: A482/27444/2024

All orders in this case

3 orders share this CNR

21 Oct 2024Order 1 — this page · Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal
11 Nov 2024Order 2 · Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal
2 Dec 2024Order 3 · Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal

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Cite this judgement

Prashant Mishra v. State of U.P. and Another, A482/27444/2024 (ALL), decided on 21 October 2024.

The Allahabad High Court publishes no neutral citation for this judgement — cite it by case number and date of decision.

Cases cited2

Indian Bank Association and others vs. Union of India and othersRelied on¶4
In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 N.I. Act, 1881Relied on¶5

Open Authorities

Whether the trial court should be directed to expedite conclusion of a pending Section 138 NI Act complaint within six months as per Sections 143(2)/(3).

A compact analysis

This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.

The Apex Court in the case of Indian Bank Association and others vs. Union of India and others; (2014) 5 SCC 590 , has issued direction for expeditious disposal of the cases under N.I. Act. Paragraph Nos. 22, 23 and 24 of the aforesaid judgement are being quoted as under:

" 22. We notice, considering all those aspects, few High Courts of the country have laid down certain procedures for speedy disposal of cases under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act. Reference, in this connection, may be made to the judgments of the Bombay High Court in KSL and Industries Ltd. v. Mannalal Khandelwal, Indo International Ltd. v. State of Maharashtra (2005) 44 Civil CC and Harischandra Biyani v. Stock Holding Corpn. of India Ltd. (2006) 4 MhLJ 381, the judgment of the Calcutta High Court in Magma Leasing Ltd. v. State of West Bengal and others (2007) 3 CHN 574 and the judgment of the Delhi High Court 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 pragmatic and realistic approach while issuing summons. Summons must be properly addressed and sent by post as well as by e-mail address got from the complainant. The court, in appropriate cases, may take the assistance of the police or the nearby court to serve notice to the accused. For notice of appearance, a short date be fixed. If the summons is received back unserved, immediate follow-up action be taken.

23.3. The court may indicate in the summon that if the accused makes an application for compounding of offences at the first hearing of the case and, if such an application is made, the court may pass appropriate orders at the earliest.

23.4. The court should direct the accused, when he appears to furnish a bail bond, to ensure his appearance during trial and ask him to take notice under Section 251 Cr.P.C. to enable him to enter his plea of defence and fix the case for defence evidence, unless an application is made by the accused under Section 145(2) for recalling a witness for cross-examination.

23.5. The court concerned must ensure that examination-in-chief, cross-examination and re-examination of the complainant must be conducted within three months of assigning the case. The court has option of accepting affidavits of the witnesses, instead of examining them in the court. The witnesses to the complaint and accused must be available for cross-examination as and when there is direction to this effect by the court.

24. We, therefore, 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. "

The Apex Court in the case of In Re: Expeditious Trial of Cases under Section 138 N.I. Act, 1881, reported in 2021 SCC Online 325 has already issued following directions for expeditious trial u/s 138 N.I. Act 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 under Section 138 of the Act from summary trial to summons trial.

2) Inquiry shall be conducted on receipt of complaints under Section 138 of the Act to arrive at sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused, when such accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court.

3) For the conduct of inquiry under Section 202 of the Code, evidence of witnesses on behalf of the complainant shall be permitted to be taken on affidavit. In suitable cases, the Magistrate can restrict the inquiry to examination of documents without insisting for examination of witnesses.

4) We recommend that suitable amendments be made to the Act for provision of one trial against a person for multiple offences under Section 138 of the Act committed within a period of 12 months, notwithstanding the restriction in Section 219 of the Code.

5) The High Courts are requested to issue practice directions to the Trial Courts to treat service of summons in one complaint under Section 138 forming part of a transaction, as deemed service in respect of all the complaints filed before the same court relating to dishonour of cheques issued as part of the said transaction.

6) Judgments of this Court in Adalat Prasad (supra) and Subramanium Sethuraman (supra) have interpreted the law correctly and we reiterate that there is no inherent power of Trial Courts to review or recall the issue of summons. This does not affect the power of the Trial Court under Section 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, shall be the subject matter of deliberation by the aforementioned Committee. Any other issue relating to expeditious disposal of complaints under Section 138 of the Act shall also be considered by the Committee.

From the above mentioned judgements of Hon'ble Apex Court, it is clear that the Apex Court for expeditious disposal of cases under N.I. Act, has issued several directions which the concerned court/Magistrate has to follow while deciding the cases under N.I. Act. From the observations of the Apex Court as well as analysis of Sections 138 & 143 of N.I. Act, it is expedient that all the proceedings under N.I. Act should be concluded expeditiously without going into unnecessary technicality.

Considering the aforesaid judgements, this Court directs the A.C.J.M.-VIII, Varanasi to conclude the trial of Complaint Case No. 2519 of 2019 ( Prashant Mishra vs. Arun Kumar Singh ), under Section 138 N.I. Act, P.S. Sigara, District Varanasi, keeping in mind the direction of the Apex Court in above mentioned cases, expeditiously preferably within a period of six months from the date of receipt of certified copy of this order, if there is no legal impediment, strictly in accordance with statutory provision of Sections 143(2) and 143(3) of the N.I. Act.

It is also directed to the concerned court that for ensuring the presence of accused during trial it should not hesitate to take coercive measures provided under Cr.P.C.

With the aforesaid direction, the application is disposed of .

Order Date :- 2.12.2024 Vandana

Digitally signed by :- VANDANA GAUTAM High Court of Judicature at Allahabad

2021 SCC Online 325 · Who else cites this

Statutes considered

3 provisions across 1 enactments

AI extract

Negotiable Instruments Act138143(2)143(3)

CNR

UPHC014276782024

Topic

Cheque Dishonour

Bench

Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal

21 Oct 2024

Shivani Saraswat vs State of U.P. and Another

21 Oct 2024

Ishak Ali and 2 Others vs State of U.P. and Another

21 Oct 2024

Statutes3

Negotiable Instruments Act138 · 143(2) · 143(3)

View all statutes

Bench / Coram

Arun Kumar Singh Deshwal

Parties & counsel