JUDGMENT

Dalveer Bhandari, J. —

1. Leave granted in both these Special Leave Petitions.

2. These appeals are directed against the judgment dated 3.1.2005 of the High Court of Karnataka at Bangalore in Criminal Petition Nos. 948 and 949 of 2003.

3. The brief facts of these appeals are recapitulated as under :

On the request of the appellants (Southern Steel Ltd.), the respondent company (Jindal Vijayanagar Steel Ltd.) had supplied HR Coils to the appellants. The terms of payment under the purchase order dated 25.4.1998 granted 45 days interest free credit to the appellants for the goods sold and delivered by the 1st respondent. The appellants had issued the cheques in question in favour of the respondent company. The said cheques were dishonoured on presentation. In response to the legal notice sent by the respondent company, the appellants, through two substantially identical replies dated 6.4.2000, for the first time, contended that the appellants had been declared a sick company on 8.4.1997 under the provisions of the Sick Industrial Companies (Special Provisions) Act, 1985 (for short “SICA”) and, therefore, no legal proceedings of recovery of the outstanding amount could be init