Bombay High Court has observed that it is open to a person to sign and deliver a blank or incomplete cheque and is equally open for the holder to fill up blanks and specify the amount therein.
A bench of Justice Shinde has passed the order in the case titled as Amit Digvijay Singh vs Gokuldas Jagannath Bhutada on 19.07.2019.
The present applicant is an accused in the Summary Case No. 2373/2018 and first Respondent is original complainant before the said Court. It was stated in the complaint that, complainant is an agriculturist and resident of Kasabe Vani, Taluka Dindori, District Nashik. The accused and the complainant were known to each other and has had good acquaintances and were friends since long. It is alleged that, the Accused met with the complainant and represented that he was in need of money for his business. Accordingly, the accused requested the complainant to give him the hand loan of Rs.30,00,000/( in words Rs. Thirty Lakhs only) for the purpose of his various businesses.
The accused assured the complainant that the said amount will be refunded when money will be available with him. Having a cordial relationship with the Accused, the complainant relying upon the said assurance of the Accused paid him an amount of Rs. 30,00,000/ in cash. Since the hand loan was given looking to the cordial relationship between the parties the said loan was interest free hand loan. It was alleged that, in pursuance of the acccused's liability and / or legal dues payable to complainant, accused had issued and delivered to the complainant a cheque bearing No. 137572 dated 15.12.2017 drawn on Business Bank, Ltd., Mahatma Nagar, Nashik for a sum of Rs. 30,00,000/ with an assurance to honour the said cheque immediately upon the presentation thereof. It was alleged that, the aforesaid cheque was deposited by the complainant for encashment in his bank which was returned dishonoured.
Complainant filed a case and the accused approached the High Court for getting the case quashed. several contentions were raised by the accused against the maintainability of the complaint case.
One of the contentions was dealt with the by the High Court as "An another contention of the applicant that the statement of bank account of the applicant will show that the said cheque was part of the cheque book issued on 09th December 2011 to the applicant, and there was change in the format of the cheque and now the applicant has been issued new cheque book by the Bank and, therefore the Respondent has misused old cheque given by the applicant many years ago and has cheated the applicant is concerned, it is for the trial Court to consider the above contention after appreciating the material placed on record.
The learned Single Judge (R.C. Chavan, J.) of the Bombay High Court in the case of Purushottam s/o Maniklal Gandhi Vs. Manohar K. Deshmukh and another (Supra) has taken a view that: “It is open to a person to sign and deliver a blank or incomplete cheque and is equally open for the holder to fill up blanks and specify the amount therein”.
High Court also observed "Prima facie it appears that signature on the subject cheque is not denied by the present applicant. In the light of the discussion in forgoing paragraphs this Court is of the opinion that no interference is called for in the order of issuance of process.Hence, application stands rejected".
Read the Order here:
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