Amendment in complaint filed for cheque dishonour

Yes, complainant in N.I.Act cases can amend their complaint under certain conditions  to correct  curable defects  but can't introduce new cause of action  or causing undue prejudice to accused,  courts generally inclined to allow  amendments  that facilitate justice and the proper adjudication  of the dispute.

In a hypothetical case.

A issued a notice to B for dishonour of two a checks say 10000 and20000.

After that A filed a complaint after a delay of 4 months with a condonation of delay on the grouond that his father was sick and hospitalised and he was serving him in the hospital hence din't have the time which the court granted,

Now he wants to amend the complaint in which he mas modified the amount of cheques dishonoured. Now he wants to modify the amount by deleting one cheque.

Whether the court has a power to grant the permission to amend the complaint?

The opposite party  has challenged the notice serviced which was at the first point not served(no evidence has been placed on record) and secondly, the notice, taking the amendment in mind has become defective. hence, the complaint is not maintainable.

Please let me know your view on this with a cse law if any.

Thanks

You have repeated the same question today itself in the experts section of this forum.

You may visit that thread to know my answer to your initial and subsequent post made in this thread. 

Follow replies in the same thread.

The court does have the power to grant permission to amend the complaint, as seen in the Rajasthan High Court's decision in Mahaveer Prasad Suman vs. Lalit Mohan Sharma.¹ In this case, the court allowed the complainant to correct the dates of cheque presentation and dishonour in the complaint. However, there are certain conditions that need to be met for the court to grant such permission. The amendment should not be so drastic that it changes the nature of the complaint entirely. Additionally, the court will consider whether the amendment will cause any prejudice to the opposite party. In your scenario, the opposite party has challenged the notice served, stating that it was not served initially and has become defective due to the proposed amendment. The court will likely consider these objections before deciding whether to grant permission for the amendment. It's also worth noting that the court may consider the fact that the delay in filing the complaint was condoned earlier. This could potentially impact the court's decision on whether to allow the amendment. Ultimately, the decision to grant permission for the amendment will depend on the specific circumstances of the case and the discretion of the court.

Amount of dishnouroud cheques cannot be permitted to be amended, in any case.

Notice u/s 138 (b) of the NI Act has to be served, which mandates:

"(a) xxxxxxxxxxxx

(b) the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, as the case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by giving a notice; in writing, to the drawer of the cheque, [within thirty days] of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheque as unpaid...."

Prima facie it is a hypothetical story.

Sir,

The in this matter. The notice was given for chequ dishonour during the Covid period when notice by whatsapp was allowed. But the respondant has n't received the notice and notice should have been served by regd post also that was not done. There was a delay in filing of complaint.The notice was for 2 cheques but now the complainant wants to amend the complaint for one cheque instead of two. There has been change of judge and the councel for the respondent also. The respondant objected to the notice as being a defective, not duly served,condoation of delay in filing the amendment application citing various SC/HC judgement. But the judge says the objection should have been raised at the time of first appearance and what ground he can dismiss the case. What ground can the respondent  take on the hearing  to  challege  the notice and dismiss the complaint .Can the respondent  move to Session court for the same or we need to go to HC.

PC Joshi