Sec 138 of n.i act 1881

It is Criminal in Nature.

JUDGMENT Manjula Chellur, J.

Any cause of action which gives right to the party to approach the Court if under law he is entitled to prosecute, it is at his option he can do so. Merely because it opts out to proceed on the criminal side, it does not stop him from proceeding in the civil Court. Section 138 of N.I. Act being a quasi civil and criminal nature, definitely the trial Court went in wrong saying that the 138 proceedings could not have been launched at all by the complainant because of the pendency of the civil suit. Ultimately at the most if the complainant is successful in getting the fruits of the decree in the civil suit, it would be helpful only as a mitigating circumstance while imposing sentence under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act.

JUDGMENT Manjula Chellur, J.

Any cause of action which gives right to the party to approach the Court if under law he is entitled to prosecute, it is at his option he can do so. Merely because it opts out to proceed on the criminal side, it does not stop him from proceeding in the civil Court. Section 138 of N.I. Act being a quasi civil and criminal nature, definitely the trial Court went in wrong saying that the 138 proceedings could not have been launched at all by the complainant because of the pendency of the civil suit. Ultimately at the most if the complainant is successful in getting the fruits of the decree in the civil suit, it would be helpful only as a mitigating circumstance while imposing sentence under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act.