Dear Anuradha,
Your Case will be depend upon the result of " Fisrt Notice " issued by you on 29th August 2009;
If its received by the ' drawer of cheque ', then your issuance of " Second Notice " should terminate the 'cause of action' .
Against your First Notice, if drawer refused or Notice returned for any other reason then only issue Second Notice, Otherwise it should terminate " Cause of Action"
Notice:-
Notice is a very important stage. It is the non-payment of dishonoured cheque within fifteen days from the receipt of the notice that constitutes an offence. Issuing of a cheque and its dishonour is not an offence. The offence is when the drawer receives a notice from the payee and he fails to pay the dishonoured cheque amount within the grace period of 15 days that constitute an offence. Any demand made after the dishonour of cheque will constitute a notice. It is not necessary that the notice should be sent by Registered Post alone, it could be sent even by fax. It is not necessary that the notice should be in any particular form or style. What is essential is that there should be a demand to pay the dishonoured cheque amount.
It is held by the Supreme Court that while the cheque could be presented at any number of times however there shall be only one Notice. The following case may be noted on the subject:
Sadanandan Bhadran v. Madhavan Sunil Kumar (1998 (4) SCALE SC
Complaint U/s. 138- Maintainability - conditions precedent to applicability of sec. 138 - A cheque can be presented any number of times during the period of its validity- Whether dishonour of the cheque on each occasion of its presentation gives rise to a fresh cause of action within the meaning of Sec. 142(b) of the act - Held No. - A competent court can take cognizance of a written complaint of an offence u/s.138 if it is made within one month of the date on which the cause of action arises under clause c of Sec.142 gives it is a restrictive meaning - it is the failure to make payment within 15 days from date of receipt of notice which will give rise to cause of action - Cause of action within meaning of Sec. 142 (c) arises and can arise only once - impediments which negate concept of successive causes of action- Held.:
On each presentation of the cheque and its dishonour a fresh right and not cause of action - accrues in his favour. He may, therefore, without taking pre-emptory action in exercise of his right under clause (b) of Section 138, go on presenting the cheque so as to enable him to exercise such right at any point of time during the validity of the cheque. But, once he gives a notice under clause (b) of Sec. 138 he forfeits such right for in case of failure of the drawer to pay the money within the stipulated time he would be liable for the offence and the cause of action for filing the complaint will arise. Needless to say, the period of one month for filing the complaint will be reckoned from the day immediately following the day on which the period of fifteen days from the date of the receipt of the notice by the drawer expires.
No action taken on the first notice - cheque presented again - second notice sent - on failure to receive money case filed on the basis of second notice - Acquittal on ground that there could not be more than one cause of action in respect of a single cheque - sustainable - Appellant had earlier taken recourse to clause (b) of Sec. 138 but did not avail of cause of action that arose in his favour u/s. 142(b) of the Act.
Approved: S.K.D. Lakshmanan Fireworks Industries v. K.V.Sivarama Kirshnan (1995 Cr.L.J. 1384)
Overruled: Kumaresan vs. Ammerappa (1991 (1) K.L.T. 893)
Therefore it is essential that the notice should be perfect and in conformity with law. A mistake in the notice will be fatal. It is common mistake committed by most of the payees that as soon as the cheque is returned unpaid to write a letter to the drawer threatening him that in case he does not pay against the dishonoured cheque legal action will be taken etc. Such letter will also be construed as a notice.
Since a second notice cannot now be issued on the basis of subsequent dishonour of cheque, due care and caution should be taken while sending the notice on dishonour of cheque.