Supreme Court recently while dealing with a situation of several cases of cheque bounce between same parties has observed that there is no provision of consolidation of cases in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A bench of Justice Gupta and Justice Bose has passed the order in the case titled as VANI AGRO ENTERPRISES vs STATE OF GUJARAT on 05.09.2019.
The appellant herein is alleged to have issued four cheques to the respondent no.2 which allegedly bounced. The respondent no.2 sent one notice in terms of Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments At, 1881 with regard to bouncing of all the four cheques. Thereafter, complaints were filed in the year 1999 and these complaints have dragged on for 20 years only on the application of the appellant herein that all the four complaints should be consolidated and heard together.
Supreme Court observed "The only other contention is that since one notice has been issued, four separate trials should not take place and one trial should take place. There is no provision of consolidation of cases in the Code of Criminal Procedure".
Supreme Court then observed "The only relief that can be granted to the appellant is that we direct the Trial Magistrate to fix all the four cases on one date so that it is convenient to both the parties to attend the hearing of all the four cases on one date".
However, the Supreme Court has issued a direction to the trial court to expeditiously dispose the case latest by the end of this year.
Read the Order here:
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