Non payment against a cheque issued by labour court
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 20 December 2023
This query is : Resolved
An employee sued his employer before the Labour Court for non-payment of F&F subsequent upon his resigning from service. The employer lost the case and paid the payable amount to the Labour Court, who in turn issued a cheque to the concerned Employee for the payable amount on a bank that has since merged with another bank, in April 2020!
Employee’s bank did not present the cheque before the Acquiring bank but returned it to the Employee only stating that the bank has since merged with another bank!
Would the matter fall under the scope of 'cheque dishonour' and attract provisions of Sec 138 NIA? Would a notice u/s 80 CPC also become necessary, which require a minimum of two months time before initiating any legal action?
Labour court is harassing the employee and not issuing a fresh cheque on one pretext or the other!
If the matter does not fall u/s 138 NIA, what would be the provision under which the employee can proceed against the Labour Court and would there be any limitation period for initiating such an action?
Any advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
kavksatyanarayana
(Expert) 20 December 2023
The merger bank checks were accepted up to September 2021 and why did the employee get transferred before that time?
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 20 December 2023
Employee resigned and then fought before Labour Court for his F&F; got his cheque from Labour Court in November 2023.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 21 December 2023
This will not come under section 138 NI act.
You can file a petition before the same court which issued this cheque and ask for replacement of the same to another bank's name.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 31 December 2023
If the cheque was issued by the employer concerned then the employee can issue a legal notice to the employer to replace the cheque, but if the cheque was issued directly by the labor court, then he can file a petition along with the bank return memo requesting the court to issue a fresh cheque drawn on the latest bank.
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 31 December 2023
Thanks Adv Kalaiselvan, the cheque was issued by the Labour Court. The concerned employee has pursued verbally with the Labour Court without any success; just dilly dallying on some excuse or the other. The employee has now sent a Regd.A.D. request letter to the Prescribed Authority for re-issue of the cheque.
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 31 December 2023
It is an incorrect procedure that the employee adopted.
Sooner the cheque was returned, the employee would have approached the labor court with a petition and affidavit stating the reason for cheque not being honored and requested the court to issue a fresh cheque.
The court will not listen to oral or verbal approaches.
His advocate should have guided him properly about the next step to be taken in this regard
