JUDGMENT

CHANDRAMAULI KR. PRASAD, J.

In all these special leave petitions common question of law and facts arise and, therefore, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

Leave granted.

In all these cases we are concerned with accused A.K. Singhania and Vikram Prakash. Several complaints were filed by Gujarat State Fertilizer Company against Esslon Synthetics Ltd., its Chairman, Managing Director and other Directors including aforesaid A.K. Singhania and Vikram Prakash alleging commission of an offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’.

In Complaint Case No. 331 of 1996 the allegations which are relevant for the decision of these appeals read as follows:

“3. The accused No. 14 is a Limited Company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 and are doing business of chemicals, synthetics etc. The accused No. 1 is Managing Director of accused company No. 14 and accused No. 2 is Deputy Managing Director, accused No. 3 is Chairman, accused No. 4 is Whole Time Director, accused No. 5 is Finance Director, accused No. 6 to 12 are the Directors and the accused No. 13 was Senior Manager (Finance) of the a