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SUPREME COURT RECOMMENDS AMENDMENT TO NI ACT AND SETS GUIDELINES FOR CASES UNDER SECTION 138 OF THE ACT

Team SoOLEGAL 23 Apr 2021 4:39pm

SUPREME COURT RECOMMENDS AMENDMENT TO NI ACT AND SETS GUIDELINES FOR CASES UNDER SECTION 138 OF THE ACT

In the recent Suo moto case of In Re: EXPEDITIOUS TRIAL OF CASES UNDER SECTION 138 OF N.I. ACT 1881 [ SUO MOTU WRIT PETITION (CRL.) NO.2 OF 2020], alarmed by the inundation of trial courts with more than 31 lakh cheque bouncing cases, the Hon’ble Supreme Court issued few guidelines. Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra was appointed as the Amicus Curiae to this case and the Constitutional Bench was headed by Chief Justice of India justice SA Bobde. The bench also comprised Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai, AS Bopanna, and S Ravindra Bhat. A preliminary report was circulated among the Respondents and to that 14 out of 26 High Courts submitted their response, seven director General of Police and Reserve Bank of India also submitted their reports.

To this, the Court issued several guidelines. The Chief Justice of India stated, “The High Courts are requested to issue practice directions to the Magistrates to record reasons before converting trial of complaints under Section 138 of the Act from summary Trial to summons trial.” Generally, while converting a summary trial to a summons trial, the process is done very mechanically with any justified reasons which contribute to the delay and increase in the number of cases.

The second guideline issued was that the court will do an initial inquiry on the issuance of summons if the accused resides beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court. The court will reconfirm the receipt of the complaint under Section 138 of the Act. For this inquiry, the court can ask the complainant to submit an affidavit of witness or examination of documents, which is the third guideline of this judgment.

Whenever a case under Section 138 of the Act is filed, there is a provision that three cases arising out of the same transaction within 12 months, can be put into one case. But the new guideline seeking to change that provision recommended that there is a need for an amendment where the Act for the provision of one trial against a person for multiple offenses under Section 138 of the Act committed within a period of 12 months, notwithstanding the restriction of Section 219 of the CrPC.

While Delivering the Sixth guideline, the Apex Court mentioned the cases of Adalat Prasad v. Roopal Jindal &Ors. [(2004)7SCC338] and SubramaniumSethuraman v. State of Maharashtra [(2004)13SCC324]. These cases state that whenever a lower court issues an order, then the same Court cannot set aside its own order, thus whenever the Trial Court issues any summon, it cannot recall its summons. The Guideline states that “we reiterate that there is no inherent power of Trial Courts to review or recall the issue of summons. This does not affect the power of the Trial Court under Section 322 of the Code to revisit the order of issue of process in case it is brought to the court’s notice that it lacks jurisdiction to try the complaint.”

In the last Guideline, the Court set aside the judgment of Meters Instrument Pvt. Ltd. V. Kachan Mehta [(2018)1SCC560]. The Apex Court states that in the above-mentioned case, the accused settles the amount dishonoured along with interest, then the on-going Proceeding will cease at that stage only, and it will not be applicable any further as it does not lay down the correct law.

The Supreme Court strongly suggests amendment within the Act, so that the Act can empower the Trial Courts to reconsider/recall summons in respect of complaints under Section 138. The Apex Court suggests settling the matters through mediation rather than going for long trials. These guidelines are not complete yet and more are yet to come. The Court has given the High Courts and other respondents a time of 8 weeks for any other further recommendation.



Tagged: Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra   justice SA Bobde   Chief Justice of India   Reserve Bank of India   RBI   High Court   Section 138   Supreme Court  
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