Allahabad High Court has quashed the summoning order in a cheque bounce case when it found that the order was passed on a printed proforma, however, it directed the trial court to pass the order afresh.
A bench of Justice Joshi has passed the order in the case titled as Anjali vs State of UP on 11.09.2019.
Complaint under section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act was filed on 1.11.2018 by opposite party no. 2- Billu against the applicant herein alleging dishonouring of cheque, of Rs. 12,50,000/- (cheque no. 000481 ICICI Bank dated 24.9.2018) on the ground of difference in drawer's signature.
The Magistrate concerned after recording the statement of the complainant as well as witnesses under Sections 200 and 202 Cr.P.C., vide impugned order dated 18.4.2019 has summoned the applicant.
Accused challenged the summoning order and argued that the Magistrate has not applied judicial mind in passing the summoning order as the order has been made on a printed proforma, in which the name of the accused has been filled up by hand.
High Court noed the factual position as ""The certified copy of the order summoning the accused has been appended as annexure-7 at page-40 of the paper book. From a perusal of the above order, it is evident that it is a typed proforma where only information of case number, name of parties, section, date and next date is to be filled by Magistrate in handwriting. It appears that the blanks in the printed proforma have been filled up by some court employee and the Magistrate namely Sri Chaitanya Kumar Kulshrestha, Presiding Officer, Additional Court No.2, Gautam Budh Nagar, has thereafter just put his initial, which leads to the conclusion that the Magistrate has passed the order in a mechanical manner without application of judicial mind".
High Court then observed 'Despite there being a series of decisions of the Apex Court and this Court disapproving such practice of passing orders on printed proforma by the judicial officers, it is very painful and unfortunate to see that applicant in the present case has been summoned by the Magistrate by an order in which blanks have been filled in on a printed proforma without applying judicial mind. This type of order has already been held unsustainable by this Court in the case of Ankit (supra) relying on in a number of decisions of the Apex Court".
Then the High Court objected to the conduct of the Magistrate saying "In view of the above, the conduct of the judicial officers concerned in passing orders on printed proforma by filling up the blanks without application of judicial mind is objectionable and deserves to be deprecated. The summoning of an accused in a criminal case is a serious matter and the order must reflect that Magistrate had applied his mind to the facts as well as law applicable thereto".
Ultimately, the High Court quashed the order and directed the Magistrate to pass the order afresh on applying judicial mind.
Read the Order here:
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