ORDER :

This Criminal Petition, under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, is filed to quash the proceedings in C.C.No.213 of 2016 on the file of the I Additional Junior Civil Judge, Sattenapalli, Guntur District, registered for the offence punishable under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881.

2. The facts averred in the present Criminal Petition are that the 1st respondent/complainant is doing business in seeds. The complainant purchased chilli seeds from the company of the petitioner/accused and sold the same to the farmers of Thallacheruvu, Pedapalem Villages and also surrounding villages. The farmers who purchased the said chilli seeds through the accused company have cultivated their lands. But, the said chilli seeds did not give fruitful yielding and the same was informed to the accused company authorities by the complainant. In response, the accused company authorities visited the said fields and agreed to give compensation to the farmers through the complainant and had issued five (5) cheques each, for an amount of Rs.6 lakhs after executing an undertaking letter on 04.01.2016. But, the said cheques were returned with an endorsement ‘funds insufficient’. Hence, the 1st respondent filed complaint for the offence punishable under Section 138 of N.I.Act and the I Additional Junior Civil Judge, Sattenapalli, Guntur District, took cognizance of the said offence.

3. Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for the 1st respondent, the learned Special Assistant Public Prosecutor for the 2nd respondent. This Court perused the record.

4. The cheques, dated 25.1.2016, 25.2.2016 and 25.3.2016, were returned unpaid for the reason ‘funds insufficient’ in the account of petitioner’s company. The complainant got issued a registered legal notice on 25.4.2015 demanding the petitioner/accused to arrange the payment of cheque amount. The petitioner/accused refused to receive the said legal notice on 05.5.2016. Subsequently, the 1st respondent/complainant has filed the present complaint under Section 138 of N.I. Act on 18.5.2016. The present complaint, is a premature one, since the same has been filed even before completion of 15 days period.

5. Section 138 (c) of N.I. Act says that “the drawer of such cheque fails to make the payment of the said amount of money to the payee or, as the case may be, to the holder in due course of the cheque, within fifteen days of the receipt of the said notice:” The relevant date, on which, the complaint is filed has to be taken but not the date of taking cognizance by the Court.

6. According to Section 190 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, the Magistrate is empowered to take cognizance of any offence upon receiving a complaint of facts which constitute such an offence. Unless the offence is ex facie disclosed in the complaint, the Magistrate cannot have any competence to take cognizance of the offence and proceed further. If the complaint is filed even before the expiry of 15 days, it would amount to premature complaint. The Magistrate ought not to have taken cognizance of the said complaint. The Negotiable Instruments Act is a special law. When once certain conditions are stipulated under the special law the conditions have to be strictly complied with.

7. The Hon’ble Apex Court in Yogendra Pratap Singh Vs. Savitri Pandey and another, (2014) 10 SCC 713 held as follows;

“36. Can an offence under Section 138 of the NI Act be said to have been committed when the period provided in clause (c) of the proviso has not expired? Section 2(d) of the Code defines ‘complaint’. According to this definition, complaint means any allegation made orally or in writing to a Magistrate with a view to taking his action against a person who has committed an offence. Commission of an offence is a sine qua non for filing a complaint and for taking cognizance of such offence. A bare reading of the provision contained in clause (c) of the proviso makes it clear that no complaint can be f