Delay in disposal of Criminal Complaint - Section 138 of N.I. Act

After the amendment in N.I. Act was brought in the year 1988, making the bouncing of cheques as punishable offence, it was thought by the law framers that the commercial instruments would be honored in great respect. However, over a period of time, it has been experienced that the position has not been changed but even has become worst as regards honoring the instruments. Consequently, a flow of criminal complaints have been filed and pending before competent courts. It has been further observed that in number of cases, Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) are pending for want of execution for quite some time.  Most of the times such NBWs are returned to the Court from concerned police station by quoting various reasons viz, address of accused not correct, or incomplete or accused not available or absconding for quite some time etc. To overcome such situations and for speedy disposal of the cases, it is suggested that such incomplete addresses are required to be completed/ rectified and furnished to the bank advocates / court where NBWs are pending for want of execution. The lender bank may also ask the banks advocate expediting those matters where addresses are correct by invoking the provisions of Section 82 and 83 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). [Seek direction from the Court to publish written proclamation requiring the accused to appear before the Court within 30 days and order from the Court for attachment of the property.]  This provision even can be invoked in the cases where inordinate delay has already taken place in executing the NBWs and the lender is satisfied that the accused is concealing or absconding himself to avoid execution of NBWs. However, where the residential addresses of accused are not known or have changed, seeking relief by invoking the above provisions may be difficult preposition in view of the requirement of establishing the fact that the accused is absconding or concealing to avoid the execution service of NBWs. 

It is also suggested that where addresses are not known, the lender should make efforts to ascertain correct addresses through various sources.  In a few cases, services of detective agency can also be explored. In nutshell, by following these precautions and pro-active approach with the help of dealing advocate, the disposal of complaint could be made much faster, thus helping recovery of the dues.