Legal help and check bounce

Being a commercial query, it is sincere advise to engage a local lawyer

Thank you! Could some one help me on this ? I am ready to take paid legal service. This dispute is in Hyderabad and please contact me if any attorney is willing to help me. I am very new to this forum and I do not know how I can reach out to local lawyers. Excuse me if I am not following proper protocol in this forum.

This case is in Hyderabad and I am looking for legal help. I am not in India and badly need legal advise. Please help.

Dear Ram,

What I could gather and understand from your query is that you have not entered into any agreement or partnership with your friend for the said business as is normally required as per law. Moreover, what could be transpired is that there is no documentary evidence which purportedly show and establish that you have invested money in business with your friend. 

What I will suggest you is in case if you have any documentary evidence which purportedly establish the fact that you have transferred funds in the account of your friend for the purpose of business, you will have a strong case in your favour. As you said, your friend is forcing you to take some money and return the cheques which he has issued to you, clearly establishes that your friend is in no mood of sharing the benefits/profits which he is making in business and he only wishes to usurp the same.

You haven't specified the quantum of amount you have invested in business with your friend. That apart, Remedy available to you is if at all you are interested in getting your money back then you can utilize the cheques in your account in India and if the same gets dishonored you can institute a complaint case u/s 138 of N I Act before MM Court, Hyderabad. Parallely the remedy which you can avail is by instituting a civil suit under Order 37 of Code of Civil Procedure which is by way of summary suit and it is to be instituted on the basis of bill of exchange.

I must make it clear here that for the purpose of you being a partner in his business to establish the same before Court of Law for claiming your rights in profit, you need to be in a position to establish the same by way of some agreement or partnership deed and the partnership deed needs to be registered before registrar of firm as there is a specific bar u/s 91 of Partnership Act that no partner can sue another partner if the firm is not registered.

I hope, this clarifies your query. IN the circumstance you have any other query, feel free to communicate.

I do have a signed copy of document ( not original but singed by him only ) accepting that he took the money from me. But document has prepared by him recently though and has other clauses which describes that I should get out of the business without bothering later by taking some money back etc. As I said, this is a signed copy ( on stamp paper) , which also postulates that he took the money from me for business and property.

I also do have some email communication form him. One of them is his email threatening about forfeiting the money I have invested for no reason.

So coming to the amounts invested, I have given these guys 1.3 crore of which about 87 lakhs for the property and 43 lakhs for business for my 33% share. This 1.3 crore is mentioned in the the document I have mentioned above. 

While business is profitable he went on and took the loan against the building and business with out informing me and once the loan is availed, he pushed me out of the business. We have other 33% partner as well, but not on the paper though. He happen to be my close friend too. He made me believe that the business is not running profitable and I should get out with loss.  I believed them and that is when they send me a copy of the signed document that specifies that amount they took form and they would give me back only 1.15 crore and I should walk out of the business.

I got 89 lakhs back in my account and once I realized that they got the loan and trying to cheat me even though the business is profitable, then I rejected their remaining amount and started to fight with them legally. Please advice I have any ground to fight legally. I feel that I am cheated here. I have other evidence from other staff members as well. They will act as witness too.

Please advise.

@ Ram,

I would say you do have a good case on merits as you said that your friend has sent you a signed copy of document by virtue of which he has acknowledged the acceptance of amount of Rs. 1.3 Crores and has as well sent you mails by which he has threatened you to oust you from the business. Fact remains the same that there is no document which tantamounts you to be a partner in the business which your friend is doing or carrying on in India. However, it could not be ruled out that your friend has accepted and acknowledged the money from you for business purpose. You being not in partnership of any sort on papers which could establish you being a partner you cannot make a claim and state that the loan which your friend availed from bank is behind your back.

You having said that you have received an amount of Rs. 89,00,000/- in your account you can fight for the remaining balance which you are entitled for along with interest.

As i said earlier that you have the cheques issued by your friend you can utilize those and can go ahead with institution of case against your friend pursuant to dishonor of the cheques by way of Criminal Comp u/s 138 of N I Act and Recovery suit i.e. Summary Suit Under Order 37 of Code of Civil Procedure.

Keep in mind that you cannot institute any case on foreign land for a transaction which took place in India.

More particularly you have not specified what all are the covenants incorporated in the agreement of which you have photocopy. Pls specify those to clarify.

Hello Mr. Yogesh V Nayyar,

Thank you for reviewing my case and your valuable advise. I would like to get more clarity about the statement you mentioned about the "Foreign Land for a transaction which took place in India." . Could you elaborate on this please ?

Also here are the agreement terms he sighed and his wife as witness.  Please read this and let me know.

                            DISSOLUTION OF PARTNERSHIP FIRM

1.       The pursuance of the decision taken by the first party and second party, the partnership firm M/s X is here by dissolved.

2.       As per the book of accounts, the first party is fell due an amount of Rs. 1, 30,000. To be paid to the second party towards his share in the said Partnership Firm including building premises bearing  ( address of building ), but however as per the mutual understanding the said amount is settled 1,15,00,000. And the second party is fully satisfied with this amount

3.       The second party agreed to pay the said amount of Rs. 1,15,00,00 to the second party with in a period of one month. ( date as May 05^th 2014)

4.       The second party here by undertakes that he will not claim anything form the First party in future except the said amount of Rs. 1,15,00,000.

5.       That the First Part is at liberty to continue the business with the existing name in the same building premises, under his sole control, administration and management and the second party shall not have any sort of right to interfere with the day to day affairs of the business.

Here is portions of email that he threatened me to oust form the Business by forfeit the amount which led me to accept whatever amount he says via mediators. The allegations he made in this statement is not true. Because I gave all my share of amount on time but my other partner dd not honor it for which he threats me. Because being an NRI, I could not do anything and the other guys is local. Also there is no agreement written as mentioned. Had the agreement been there, it would have been much better for me. All we talked orally and I honored my oral commitment on time. Also I was not passive while business is running. I am in day to day touch with the employees over there to supervise the business and most of employees are not happy with the way of running the business. Also,I have a cousin who oversees the operations there stays with the business of entirely. The agony here is that he did not develop the business we were able to manage this business to make it profitable and once he sees the profit and kicks us out.  I am an idiot trusting the close friends and now paying the price. I would like pursue to see any legal ground for me to sue this guys(s) for making use of my money and friendship. Please advise.

" 3.You guys are not honored the initial agreement, even second agreement and third agreement regarding building money payment so you don’t have right to ask money   paid for the building and I’m going to forfeit and there no further discussion about it.

"

Thanks!

Ram

The best thing is that you search for a prudent lawyer in Hyderabad, discuss with him at length all the problems, take his advise and proceed.  You can find expert lawyers if you search in the LCI data base itself.

As you are an NRI facing deceitful attitude from your friend and seeking appropriate legal help from your homeland lawyers to fructify your purpose you can proceed with my strategic legal plan taking help of my Hyderabad team on usual professional terms. For assistance you may contact me by mail. My E-mail ID is bnroy.advocate@gmail.com  Please note I have modern arrangements to monitor tough cases pending in different States from Kolkata.

Hello Sir, I will send you email asap.

Dear Ram,

Fact remains the same that whether the said agreement is an arrangement and understanding between you and your friend. It could not be referred to be as Partnership deed until and unless you have duly executed a partnership deed with your friend who purportedly is your partner. 

The mails which your friend has sent you would support your case is a fact and thats why I said you have got a strong case.

@ Ram,

One thing I wish to ask you, as you are an NRI, whether you hold a NRO or an NRE account in India? Pls clarify.

Hello Mr. Yogesh V Nayyar  Ji, I hold both NRO and NRE accounts in India.

@ Ram,

A Non-Resident Indian is often faced with the situation of maintaining a Rupee account in India. Primarily there are two reasons for opening such account: NRI wants to repatriate overseas earned money back to India and/or NRI wants to keep India based earnings in India.  NRI has the option of opening a Non Resident Rupee (NRE) account and/or a Non Resident Ordinary Rupee (NRO) account. An NRO account can also be opened by a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and an Overseas citizen of India (OCI).

Similarities between NRE and NRO accounts:

Both accounts can be opened as Savings as well as current accounts and are Indian Rupee accounts. One needs to maintain an average monthly balance of Rs 75000 in both NRE and NRO accounts.

The Differences between NRE and NRO accounts:

1. Repatriation: NRE account is freely repatriable (Principal and interest earned) while the NRO account has restricted repatriability i.e permitted remittance allowed from NRO is up to USD 1 million net of applicable taxes in a financial year after giving undertaking along with a certificate from a chartered accountant.

2. Tax Treatment: NRE account is Tax free (no Income tax, wealth tax and gift tax) in India. On the other hand the interest earned in NRO account and credit balances are subject to respective income tax bracket and are also subject to applicable wealth and gift tax.

3. Deposit of Rupee funds generated in India: If an NRI/PIO/OCI  is earning income originating in India (such as salary, rent, dividends etc.) he/she is only allowed to deposit it in NRO account. Deposit of such earnings is not permitted in NRE account.

4. Joint Holding: NRE account can be iointly held with another NRI but not with resident Indian. On the other hand NRO account can be held with NRI as well as resident Indian (close relative) as defined under Section 6 of the Companies Act 1956.

Choose NRE accounts if you:

 (Primary reason) want to park your overseas earnings remitted to India converted to Indian Rupees; want to maintain savings in Rupee but keep them liquid; want to make a joint account with another NRI; want Rupee savings to be freely repatriable

Choose NRO account if you: (Primary reason) want to park India based earnings in Rupees in India; want account to deposit income earned  in India such as rent, dividends etc; want to open account with resident Indian (close relative)