May 11, 2019:
In a cheque bounce case, the Supreme Court has directed an accused (who was acquitted by Sessions Court and the High Court) to compensate the complainant by paying Rs. 4 lakhs.
A bench of Justice Nageshwara Rao and Justice Shah has passed the order in the case titled as SHYAM LAL vs RAVINDER SINGH on 06.05.2019.
The petitioner filed a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (‘the Act’) as the cheque issued by the respondent was dishonored by the Bank due to “insufficient funds”. The Trial Court convicted the respondent and sentenced him till the rising of the Court. There was a further direction by the Trial Court to the Respondent to pay Rs.2,60,000/-. The learned Additional Sessions Judge reversed the judgment of the Trial Court and acquitted the respondent by finding that the respondent had rebutted the presumption under Section 139 of the Act and that he did not take any loan from the petitioner. The High Court affirmed the judgment of the learned Additional Sessions Judge aggrieved by which the complainant filed SLP before Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court passed a direction as "Having considered the submissions made by Mr. Thakur, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and Ms. Radhika Gautam, learned counsel appearing for the respondent, we are of the opinion that interest of justice will be served by the Respondent being directed to pay Rs.4 Lakhs to the petitioner as compensation within a period of four weeks from today".
With the above observation, the Supreme Court dispose of the SLP. It would be pertinent to note that the accused was acquitted by the Sessions Court while holding that he had not taken any loan from the complainant and that he was able to rebut the presumption under Section-139 NI Act. The Supreme Court has not said that the finding of Sessions Court as affirmed by the High Court was wrong or perverse. The Supreme Court has even not said that acquittal of accused was not justified. The Supreme Court has not even reversed the acquittal. It has not even pronounce the accused guilty nor convicted him for the offence charged. The Supreme Court directly made the accused liable to compensate the complainant with a huge amount.
Read the Order of Supreme Court here:
Read the Order of High Court here:
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