On December 7th 2011 i paid an amount of Rs 13.60 lakhs to A Real Estate Company towards purchasing a plot of 800 sqyds, he agreed to complete the registration within 2 weeks, but this got postponed to a month. when asked he said it will take another month or two since he was trying to get the land under VUDA(Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority) as it would enable me to get clearances if i decide to go for development in future. it was under panchayat till then. since i have bought 300 sqyd of land before from him, i trusted him and i waited. he delayed further and it was in May i decided to ask for refund. i informed him the same and in June he agreed to refund the amount and gave two cheques of Rs 650000 and Rs 710000 each and asked me to en-cash each of them with a gap of two weeks after August 18th, he also said he would pay me an interest for the delay he caused. As i deposited the first cheque on August 18th, the cheque got bounced. when informed him the same, he apologized for that and agreed to refund the amount within in a week. he said he was away and forgot to deposit amount in that account. after a week he called me up and requested for one more month of time and said by September 20th he would pay me with interest. September 20th passed and he didn't refund the amount, his phone remained switched off or out of coverage area for most of the time. on september 24th he called me up and said he would refund soon and after 20 days of that call in the mid of October he called me up again and requested for 2 more days of time. After this there was no resopnse from him. His office remains closed now and his staff members aren't available, upon much inquiry i found out that he was admitted into hospital (in which his relative is one of the doctor). I wasn't allowed to visit him in the hospital, but after inquiring from the hospital boys and staff i found out that he is in general ward and is fine.
I have the following proofs with me-
1) the receipt of the amount , the receipt bears the full name (fullform of ABC in ABC Developers) of the company and
2) the cheque, it bears the name as "ABC Developers". Two Cheques are dated as- 17th August and 12th October. It is written on cheque that it is valid for 3 months.
I've sent him a Registered Post informing him of the cheque bounce and i mentioned the following text in it "Please treat this letter as a notice u/s. 138 (b) of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as amended up-to-date and your failure to comply with the aforesaid the abovementioned proceedings under the provisions of the N.I. Act shall be initiated against you without any further reference to you."
I received the acknowledgement of the letter with the stamp of the company and signature of one of the staff member on it.
Now that he is in hospital can i file a case on him. kindly describe me the legal process that can be followed now.
