Cheques

If a person is facing trial for the last ten years without a single hearing in a cheque bouncing case, and this is the judgement of Mumbai High Court, what can one do?

Ksl And Industries Ltd., (Formerly Known As Krishna Texport Industries Ltd.), A

Company Duly Incorporated Under The Companies Act, 1956 vs Mannalal Khandelwal

And The State Of Maharashtra Through The Office Of The Government Pleader

Intervenor: Mr. Vijay Agarwal, President on 1/2/2005

JUDGMENT

   Dalveer Bhandari, C.J.

   40. Immediately after the presence of the accused is secured, an option be given to him whether, at that stage, he would be willing to pay the amount due, along with reasonable interest, and the Court may consider passing suitable order. But where the accused is not willing to pay the principal amount with interest even at that stage, the Court may fix up the case at an early date, and ensure day to day trial of the case. In order to accomplish the underlying object of the Act, we deem it appropriate to pass the following directions:

     33 (a) Experience reveals that enormous time is spent at the stage of summoning / serving the accused. The Court must adopt pragmatic methods and must serve them by all possible means of service, including Email. The Court would be justified, in appropriate cases, to take the help of concerned police station for the service on the accused. The Court should avoid giving long dates.

Instead, the Court must repeatedly issue summons to secure the presence of the accused. The Court must ensure that the accused are not permitted to abuse the system. 

     (b) The Court concerned must ensure that examination in chief, cross examination and reexamination of the complainant must be concluded within three months of assigning the case. The Court has option of accepting affidavits of the witnesses, instead of examining them in Court. Witnesses to the complaint and accused must be available for cross examination as and when there is direction to this effect by the Court.

     (c) Complaints must be disposed of as expeditiously as possible, and in any event, within six months from the date when the presence of the accused has been secured. In case the concerned judicial officer is not able to dispose of the complaint within six months, then, the concerned judicial officer must submit a report to the concerned Sessions Judge, indicating the reasons which led to delay in disposal of the complaint. The report submitted by the concerned

judicial officer shall be taken into consideration while evaluating the performance of the concerned judicial officer.

     (d) Every judicial officer must ensure that at least four cases in a month are disposed of by reasoned judgments.

     (e) The trial of these complaint cases under Section 138 of the Act be continued from day to day until its conclusion.

     (f) The complainant must ensure that the legislative intention is carried out in dealing with complaints under Section 138 of the Act.

     (g) The Registrar General is directed to monitor that directions given by the Court are scrupulously followed. A comprehensive quarterly report be submitted to this Court indicating whether directions of this Court are followed.

   41. All these petitions are accordingly disposed of. Rule is partly made absolute in Criminal Writ Petition No. 1228 of 2004. All intervention applications stand disposed of.

   42. These petitions would, however, be listed on 1 st March, 2005 only to ensure compliance of our judgment, as mentioned below.

   43. We would like to place on record that presently, there are 727 posts of Civil Judges, Junior Division, in the State of Maharashtra. The entire process of filling these vacancies is complete, as far as this Court is concerned. The Civil Judges, Junior Division, and Metropolitan Magistrates are already overworked; and giving them additional burden may not yield any fruitful and

desirable results. About 4 lakh complaints under Section 138 of the Act are pending in various Courts. According to the legislative intention, these complaints must be disposed of expeditiously. The only way to achieve this object is to have larger number of judicial officers. Therefore, in the larger interest of justice, it has become absolutely imperative to create at least 100 additional posts of Judicial Officers in the Cadre of Civil Judges, Junior Division, in the State of Maharashtra.

   44. We direct the Chief Secretary of the State of Maharashtra to ensure that 100 additional posts of Civil Judges, Junior Division, and their supporting staff are created forthwith, and in any event, within two months from today. 45.Even after receiving sanction from the State, to complete the entire process, at least time of few months would be required.

   45. Therefore, looking to the urgency of these matters, we direct the Registrar General to appoint following judicial officers in various cities of Maharashtra to deal with cases under Section 138 of the Act exclusively:

Sr. No. District No. of officers

 1 Mumbai 15

 2 Pune 12

 3 Nagpur 4

 4 Ahmednagar 2

 5 Aurangabad 1

 6 Nashik 2

 7 Kolhapur 1

 8 Solapur 1

 9 Thane 2

10 Satara 1

11 Jalgaon 1

                Total 42

   46. The Registrar General is directed to post the officers as enumerated in preceding paragraph within two weeks.

   47. We direct that the copies of this judgment be sent to the Chief Secretary and the Law Secretary of the State of Maharashtra within three days for immediate compliance.

   48. These petitions are disposed of. These petitions would be listed on 1 st March, 2005 for limited purpose of ensuring the compliance of our judgment.