Punjab and Haryana High Court has recently declined to give any relief to a person accused of cheque bounce case and has observed that filling date in the cheque does not amount to material alteratiion.
A bench of Justice Kshetrapal has passed the order in the case titled as Kailash Vati vs M/s Ludhiana Beverages Pvt. Ltd. on 27.08.2019.
High Court posed a question as "Whether filling up of date and amount in the already signed cheque would result in material alteration within the meaning of Section 87 of the Act of 1881, hence, renders the same void?"
High Court observed "It has been pleaded by the complainant that the cheques were drawn in favour of the complainant and only the columns meant for filling up the amounts in numerical and words as also the date, were blank".
High Court further observed "It has been provided that any material alteration shall render the same, void. Question is whether filling up the date and the amount would fall within the definition of material alteration. Kerala High Court in the case of Capital Syndicate (Supra) has held that subsequent writing of the date in an undated cheque would amount to material alteration rendering the instrument void under Section 87 of the Act of 1881. Whether writing a date in the blank column meant for entering a date would fall within the scope of material alteration or not. In the considered view of this court, filling in the blank shall not be always required to be treated as a material alteration. The alteration in the common parlance is understood to mean, something already been written has been changed/altered subsequently. Alteration is not synonymous to the word “filling up the unfilled column or space”. Alteration is permissible, if it is made in order to carry out the common intention of the original parties. It may be noted here that first of all, it is the pleaded case of the complainant that the date and the amount has been filled up with the consent of the accused which can only be proved at the time when parties are allowed to lead evidence".
Then the High Court dismissed the petition filed by the accused who was seeking quashing of the case.
Read the Order here:
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