Cheque bounce: Supreme Court said that if individual Cheque bounce cases are brought against a person in a year for single transaction, then he should be clubbed.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a number of directions for the early disposal of Cheque bounce cases and asked the Center to amend the law to make such provisions if more than one case against a single person in a year If registered, such cases can be heard together. The top court took cognizance of the huge number of pending Cheque bounce cases in March last year. On December 31, 2019, the total number of such cases involving check bounce was 35.16 lakhs in the total of 2.31 crore criminal cases pending in the country.
The constitution bench of five judges, headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, took steps to ‘reduce the burden on criminal courts’ in a common order. The Bench asked the High Courts to issue ‘procedural directions’ to the magistrates hearing the cases of dishonor of checks and that they should issue summons to the complainants under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, instead of immediate hearing. Enter the reason for your decision on the court record. Under the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC), if the accused does not admit his guilt in the summary hearing, the magistrate can file the evidence and pronounce the verdict immediately. But in the process of hearing summons issued by CRPC, the judicial officer will have to complete the proceedings and record the evidence.
Permission to take evidence on affidavit before calling the accused
The Court took note of the suggestion that a suitable amendment could be made by the Center in the check bounce law so that a ‘plurality of proceedings’ could be avoided where checks were issued for the same purpose. Writing a 27-page order on behalf of the bench, Bobde said, “On receiving complaints under Section 138 of the Act, an inquiry will be conducted so that such simultaneous action against the accused, who is outside the geographical limits of the judicial authority of the trial court, will be sufficient.” Aadhaar can be decided. The order states that the evidence of witnesses will be allowed to be taken on affidavit on behalf of the complainant for conducting an inquiry before calling the accused and ‘insist on recording the testimony of magistrate witnesses in appropriate cases. Without giving it, the investigation can be confined to the scrutiny of documents.
The committee headed by RC Chavan will consider further
The court directed for the trial courts to issue such procedure-related instructions under which the summons issued in connection with the hearing of a complaint under section 138 against a person before the court for all such cases against him. To be considered. The bench has said that in its Friday decision, the issues related to the check bounce that remain, will be considered by a committee headed by former Mumbai High Court judge Justice RC Chavan. This committee was formed by the court on 10 March.
