Complaint Against Cheque Bouncing

This is a sample Complaint against Cheque dishonour. The .pdf format can be downloaded from here.

 

IN THE COURT OF THE LEARNED CHIEF METROPOLITAN MAGISTRATE AT KOLKATA

Complaint Case No.          of  ______

Police Station:___________

______________________
______________________
_______________________

                            .... COMPLAINANT.

-VERSUS-

______________________
______________________
_______________________

         ....ACCUSED.

Charge under section 138 read with section 142 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as amended upto-date.

The humble petition of complaint on behalf of the complainant abovenamed

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:-

1.    The complainant/petitioner is a law abiding citizen of India and _________________ by profession.

2.    Sometime in the month of _____________ the accused person requested the complainant to provide him some financial help as an interest-free loan to the tune of Rs. ________/- (Rupees __________) only to fulfill his urgent necessity and promised to repay the said amount within three months.

3.    Upon the request made by and believing in the promise of the accused the complainant provided him such loan/financial accommodation of Rs. ______/- (Rupees ___________________) only.

4.    In discharge of the existing legal debts and/or liabilities as aforesaid one A/c payee cheque was issued by the accused in favour of the complainant.

A detail of the said cheque is given below:-

Cheque No.    Date    Drawn on    Amount (Rs.)

………….    ……….  ...................    …………….

5.    Upon presentation of the said cheque for encashment within its validity period with the complainant’s banker, __________________, the same was dishonoured and returned unpaid alongwith the Cheque Returning Memo dated ___________ with the endorsement “Insufficiency of funds in the account”. The Compalinant was intimated about such dishonour by Debit Advice Memo dated ___________.

6.    The fact of such dishonour of the cheque had been communicated to the accused person by a notice U/s. 138(b) of N.I. Act, 1881 as amended upto-date issued by the Complainant and the said notice was despatched by Regd. Post with A/D on __________ demanding the payment of the amount of the said cheque i.e. Rs. _______/- (Rupees _____________) only within 15 days from the date of receipt of the said notice.

7.    The Complainant submits that the said demand notice was duly duly received by the accused person on ________,  but inspite of this the accused person failed and neglected to make payment as demanded therein.

8.    The accused person has therefore succeeded in deceiving the complainant malafidely, intentionally, purposely and mischieviously.

9.    The accused has thus committed an offence punish¬able under section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as amended upto-date.

10.    This petition of complaint is not barred by the Law of Limitation.

11.    The cause of action of this case arose within the jurisdiction of this Learned Court. Hence, this Learned Court is the competent authority and has jurisdiction to try the offence in this instant case.

12.    This petition of Complaint is made bonafide and for the ends of justice.

Format Notice of Cheque Dishonour

Often we receive payment by cheque, unfortunately sometimes it gets dishonoured by the banker for insufficiency of funds in the drawer's account or for some other reasons. As a result we become bound to send legal notice to the drawer of the cheque.

Here is a format of such legal notice below, the format can be also downloaded in  free .pdf version from here.

FORMAT OF THE NOTICE

REGD./SPEED POST WITH A/D.

Ref. No. __________                            Date: ________ 

To
Mr. _____________
________________
________________

Re:    Notice U/S. 138 (b) of the Negotiable Instruments

        Act, 1881 as amended up-to-date.

Sir,
    Please take notice that in discharge of your existing legal liability and/or debts, you issued one A/c. payee cheque under your signature in my favour.

   Details of the said cheque are as follows: -

Cheque No. Cheque Date        Drawn on          Amount  

...............      .............           ________ Bank     ...........
                                             _______ Branch
                                             _____________   

    The abovementioned cheque on due presentation through my banker for encashment within its validity period, was returned unpaid vide cheque return memo dated ____________ with the endorsement “_________”.

It may further be mentioned that under Section 139 of the said Act, there is a presumption that the cheque above mentioned had been issued in discharge of a legally enforceable debt/liability owed by you.

In view of the aforesaid,  I do hereby call upon you and demand you to pay me the aforementioned amount of Rs. ________/- (Rupees ________________________) only, the amount of the said dishonoured cheque by pay order or bank draft or in cash within 15 days from the date of receipt of this notice, failing which, I will be constrained to institute legal proceedings against you under the provisions of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 as amended up-to-date, which will render you liable to be punished with imprisonment which may extend to two year or with fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque or with both.

RBI Guideline on Cheque Writing - Impact on Cheque Dishonour

One should change his cheque writing behaviour as the RBI's new cheque writing Guideline has become effective on and from  the 1st July, 2010. Section 1.8 of the Annexure to  RBI Circular DPSS.CO.CHD.No.1832/04.07.05/2009-2010 dated February 22, 2010 specifically deals in "Prohibiting alterations / corrections on cheques". The Section is reproduced hereunder:

"Prohibiting alterations / corrections on cheques : No changes / corrections should be carried out on the cheques (other than for date validation purposes, if required). For any change in the payee’s name, courtesy amount (amount in figures) or legal amount (amount in words), etc., fresh cheque forms should be used by customers. This would help banks to identify and control fraudulent alterations."

As such the bank will return or reject a cheque having alteration on - (i) Payee's name, (ii) Amount in figure and (iii) Amount in words.  However, in terms of the said Section the date alteration will be allowed.

Impact of the new guideline : One must be very careful in writing a cheque, as any casual mistake will result in dishonour of the cheque by the bank and such dishonour will cost both in time and money. 

Other aspects of the new cheque writing guideline : In case of a dishonour of a cheque under certain circumstances, Section 138 (Dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc., of funds in the accounts) of THE NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS ACT, 1881 is attracted. The Section provides for punishment to the drawer of the cheque being dishonoured under the circumstances specified in the Section. 

Now this is to see whether the dishonour of cheque by the bank in view of the aforesaid guideline also attracts that Section 138 or not. We have to wait till such occasion of cheque dishonour and the matter is decided in the Hon'ble Court.