LIMITATION PERIOD FOR RECOVERY OF COMPENSATION AMOUNT IN CHEQUE BOUNCE CASE

Repeated query , you have reapeated these quries number  of times.

You were sleeping for about 12 years and now you woke up. 

Hi Rajan Ji, I’m Adv. Niharika and here is my take on your query.

When a cheque bounces you have two possible remedies, one is to file a criminal suit under S.138, N.I. Act which you have already done and after that or along with it, a civil summary suit of realisation. The time limitation to file such a suit for recovery is three years from the date of bouncing of cheque and not twelve. S.5 of the Limitation Act allows the condonation of delay but only for appeals and execution and NOT for suits. It is a common saying in the field of law that law helps those who are vigilant of their rights and not the one who sleeps over their rights. In your case, you have unfortunately slept on your right for way too many years. In my opinion there now remains nothing that can remedy it. I will be in a position to help you better with detailed facts and documents. You can contact me via mail at niharikalohan@yahoo.com for further queries. 

The compensation awarded u/s 357 Cr PC which reads as

Section 357 in The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973

357. Order to pay compensation.(1) When a Court imposes a sentence of fine or a sentence (including a sentence of death) of which fine forms a part, the Court may, when passing judgment, order the whole or any part of the fine recovered to be applied-

(a) in defraying the expenses properly incurred in the prosecution;

(b) in the payment to any person of compensation for any loss or injury caused by the offence, when compensation is, in the opinion of the Court, recoverable by such person in a Civil Court;

(c) when any person is convicted of any offence for having caused the death of another person or of having abetted the commission of such an offence, in paying compensation to the persons who are, under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855 (13 of 1855 ), entitled to recover damages from the person sentenced for the loss resulting to them from such death;

(d) when any person is convicted of any offence which includes theft, criminal misappropriation, criminal breach of trust, or cheating, or of having dishonestly received or retained, or of having voluntarily assisted in disposing of, stolen property knowing or having reason to believe the same to be stolen, in compensating any bona fide purchaser of such property for the loss of the same if such property is restored to the possession of the person entitled thereto.

(2) If the fine is imposed in a case which is subject to appeal, no such payment shall be made before the period allowed for presenting the appeal has elapsed, or, if an appeal be presented, before the decision of the appeal.