The Supreme Court set aside a High Court order that awarded only the cheque amount sans interest or imprisonment for a cheque dishonour case. The Court granted the respondent time to pay Rs. 45 lakh as settlement; failure will permit imprisonment.
Time granted to pay Rs. 45 lakh; impugned judgment set aside; liberty to reinvoke appeals for imprisonment upon default.
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.
NON-REPORTABLE
2026 INSC 452
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. OF 2026 [Arising out of SLP (CRL.) 2786-87 OF 2025]
ANILKUMAR S/o MANOHAR DEVADHAR …PETITIONER
VS.
PRAVEEN S/o ADIVAYYA HIREMATH …RESPONDENT
J U D G M E N T
DIPANKAR DATTA, J.
Signature Not Verified “7. Since the petitioner has already deposited 50% of the fine amount Digitally signed by rashmi dhyani pant Date: 2026.05.06 before this Court, it would suffice to modify the sentence by restricting the 17:00:09 IST Reason:
1 High Court
2 Criminal Revision Petition Nos. 100041 and 100040 of 2017
3 IIIrd Additional Civil Judge & JMFC Court, Dharwad
4 Act
5 IVth Additional District & Session Judge, Dharwad
fine amount to the cheque amount. Accordingly, to this extent, the impugned judgment of conviction and order of sentence requires modification. Accordingly, I pass the following:
ORDER
a) The appeals are allowed.
b) The impugned judgement and order dated 25.01.2017 passed by the IV Additional District and Session Judge Dharwad in Crl.P.Nos. 128/2016 and 129/2016 and the judgement and order dated 26.10.2016 passed by the III Additional Civil Judge (Jr.Dn) and JMFC, Dharwad in C.C. 284/2014 and 287/2014 are hereby modified as follows.
c) The appellant/accused is convicted for the offence punishable under section 138 of the N.I. Act and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs.2,00,000/and Rs.50,00,000/- respectively and in default to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of 2 years. d) The complainant has withdrawn the cheque amount deposited by the accused before this Court. e) The appellant/accused having deposited the entire cheques amount, the order of sentence passed against the accused to undergo imprisonment for a period of two years is set aside in case of default is set aside (sic.).”
…………….............................J.
[DIPANKAR DATTA]
……………..............................J.
[SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA]
New Delhi; April 13, 2026.
3 issues framed by the court
Whether the High Court erred in dismissing the appellant's claims without imposing a prison term or interest while demanding only the cheque amount.
Whether the respondent's undertaking to pay a reduced settlement sum warrants setting aside the impugned judgment.
Whether the appropriate sentence should be revived if the respondent fails to make the proposed payment.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
ANILKUMAR S/O MANOHAR DEVADHAR
PRAVEEN S/O ADIVAYYA HIREMATH
DIPANKAR DATTA
SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
