Material alteration of a negotiable instrument renders it void as per Sec. 87 of the N.I. Act.

JUDGMENT :

H.B. Prabhakara Sastry, J.

1. The present petitioner as the accused was tried by the Court of the learned Principal Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class, Karkala, (hereinafter for brevity referred to as "the Trial Court") in Criminal Case No. 578/2014, for the offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (hereinafter for brevity referred to as "the N.I. Act ") and was convicted for the said offence by its judgment of conviction and order on sentence dtd. 18/12/2017.

Aggrieved by the same, the accused preferred a Criminal Appeal, in the Court of the learned Principal District and Sessions Judge, Udupi District, Udupi, (hereinafter for brevity referred to as "the Sessions Judge's Court") in Criminal Appeal No. 5/2018. The appeal was contested by the respondent who was the complainant in the Trial Court. The Sessions Judge's Court in its order dtd. 11/3/2019 dismissed the appeal, confirming the judgment of conviction and order on sentence passed by the Trial Court dtd. 18/12/2017 in C.C.No. 578/2014. Aggrieved by the said order, the accused has preferred this revision petition.

2. The summary of the case of the complainant in the Trial Court was that, the complainant and the accused are known to each other. The complainant is a Medical Practitioner and a Medical Examiner in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Karkala Branch and the accused is an LIC Agent. At the request of the accused, the complainant had advanced a hand loan of a sum of Rs.5,00,000.00 to the accused in cash in the first week of January 2013 at his residence. The accused had issued a cheque dtd. 20/3/2013 bearing No. 749010 for Rs.5,00,000.00 drawn on the Corporation Bank, Karkala Branch, in favour of the complainant in discharge of the amount legally due to the complainant. When the said cheque was presented for realisation, the same came to be dishonoured and returned for the reasons 'funds insufficient' and 'Account Closed/Transferred to......', as per the banker's memo dtd. 23/3/2013. Thereafter, the complainant got issued a legal notice dtd. 4/4/2013, calling upon the accused to make payment of the cheque amount, however, the said notice was returned as unclaimed. This constrained the complainant to institute a criminal case against the accused, in the Trial Court, in C.C.No. 578/2014, for the offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the N.I. Act.

3. The accused appeared in the Trial Court and contested the matter through his counsel. He pleaded not guilty and claimed to be tried, as such, the Trial Court proceeded to record the evidence. To prove his case, the complainant got himself examined as PW-1 and got marked documents from Exs.P-1 to P-20 and closed his side. The accused got himself examined as DW-2 and examined one more witness - Sri. Akki Basavaraj as DW-1 and got marked documents from Exs.D-1 to D-8, in his support.

4. The Trial Court after recording the evidence led before it and hearing both side, by its impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence dtd. 18/12/2017 convicted the accused for the offence punishable under Sec. 138 of the N.I. Act and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year and pay a fine of Rs.10,000.00. In default of payment of fine, the accused shall undergo simple imprisonment for a period of six months. Acting under Sec. 357 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, it directed the accused to pay compensation of a sum of Rs.5,00,000.00 to the complainant. Challenging the said judgment of conviction and order on sentence passed by the Trial Court, the accused preferred an appeal in Criminal Appeal No. 5/2018, before the learned Sessions Judge's Court, which after hearing both side, by its impugned judgment dtd. 11/3/2019 dismissed the appeal filed by the accused, while confirming the impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence passed by the Trial Court. Being aggrieved by the judgments of conviction and order on sentence, the accu