My friend, Ravi died in Aug 2007. His wife, Rajni now runs her business.
Case1 She received a lawyer’s notice dated 31 Oct 2007, that her husband had issued a cheque of Rs three lakhs dated 15 Aug 2007 against money taken from Mr Anoop Singh in Feb 2007. The cheque had been dishonoured and hence as legal heir she was responsible to pay the money. On checking the Cash Book register and bank statement of Feb 2007, there was no entry of the three lakh rupees. The same was mentioned in the reply to the notice. Mr Anoop Singh went to the court. Mr Anoop Singh did not put in evidence his Income Tax return or the details of bank cheque/draft under which he had paid money to my deceased friend. However, the cheque has the sig of my friend but the handwriting on the rest of the cheque is not his. Despite the plea that there is nothing in my friend’s account book/bank statement and Mr Anoop Singh has not put any evidence, the court decided against my friend’ wife. She has taken a stay in high court. Please advice on how should she proceed with the case.
Case 2.
1. Mr Rajesh Singh sent a lawyer’s notice to Mrs Rajni dated 18 Nov 2010 that Late Mr Ravi (Mrs Rajni’s husband) had borrowed Rs five lakhs from him on 05 Jul 2007 and Rs one lakh on 27 Jul 2007 and accordingly had issued cheques of 05 Jul 2008 and 27 Jul 2008 (The ser No of the cheque are surprisingly in reverse order 05 Jul 2007 is 168084 and 27 Jul 2007 is 168083…. Probably a minor issue).
2. In this notice he also mentioned that he had earlier sent a notice on 21 Jul 2008. However, Rajni did not receive any such notice. Secondly, Mr Rajesh Singh mentioned that when he went to the bank to present the cheque dated 05 Jul 2008, he came to know from the bank that Mr Ravi had died and hence, he did not present the cheque to the bank. Nevertheless, Rajni through her lawyer sent the reply to the notice denying everything.
3. On 26 May 2011, Mr Rajesh Singh filed a civil case for Rs Six Lakhs. Again in Rajni’s husband’s business account books and statement of account of bank, there is no entry of these amounts.
4. Mr Rajesh Singh has not given any other proof except that of the cheque. Incidentally we found out that Mr Anoop Singh (Case 1) and Mr Rajesh Singh are brothers. Quiet surprising that one brother has filed the case in 2007 while the second has waited for such a long time before filing the notice and court case.
5. The case is presently in session court.
6. Rajni’s worry is that in Case 1, for whatever reason, just based on the dishonoured cheque the session court had passed verdict against her plea; the similar thing could happen in Case 2.
Sir, the poor widow needs your wisdom and advise to get out of this problem; the local lawyers are not of much help.
