IMPORTANT POINT
Complaint contemplated under Section 142 of Negotiable Instruments Act is to be filed and signed by payee and not by power of attorney of payee.

Ch. S.R.K. Prasad, J.—The petitioners who are accused in C.C. No.291 of 2001 on the file of II Metropolitan Magistrate, City Criminal Court, Hyderabad seek for quashing of the proceedings by invoking the inherent powers of this Court under Section 482 Cr.P.C. on the sole ground that GPA holder of Mr. Vijendra Nath, has no right to present a complaint under Section 142 of Negotiable Instrument Act for dishonouring of cheque bearing No.021712 dt. 17.3.2001 amounting to Rs. 60,000 drawn on Agroha Bank (Agroha Co-operative Urban Bank Limited), Rikabgunj Branch, which has been dishonoured, for insufficiency of funds. The learned Counsel for the Ist respondent contends that the complaint has been presented by a legal.entity namely V.N. Commercial Corporation which is represented by a GPA holder and therefore the complaint is valid. It is also contended by her that Section 2(d) of Cr.P.C. permits the companies to file complaints along with authorization letter in representative capacity, and the power of attorney has got the power to present a complaint representing the company under Cr.P.C. She further contends that the GPA holder is working as an accountant and he knows all the transactions and therefore, he is entitled to present the complaint. Reliance is placed by her on the following decisions. S. K. Abdur Rahim v. Amal Kumar Banerjee and State of W.B.1, Hamsa v. Ibrahim2, Rajan George v. State of Kerala3, and Ruby Leather Exports v. K. Venu4.

2. Adverting to the same, Sections 138 and 142 of Negotiable Instrument Act read as follows :

“138.Dishonour of cheque for insufficiency, etc. of funds in the account —Where any cheque drawn by a person on an account maintained by him with a banker for payment of any amount of money to another person from out of that account for the discharge, in whole or in part, of any debt or other liability, is returned by the bank unpaid, either because of the amount of money standing to the credit of that account is insufficient to honour the cheque or that it exceeds the amount arranged to be paid from that account by an agreement made with that bank, such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence and shall, without prejudice to any other provisions of this Act, be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to twice the amount of the cheque, or with both :

Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply unless—

(a)the cheque has been presented to the bank within a period of six months from the date on which it is drawn or within the period of its validity, whichever is earlier;

(b)the payee or the holder in due course of the cheque, as the case may be, makes a demand for the payment of the said amount of money by giving a notice, in writing, to the drawer of the cheque, of the receipt of information by him from the bank regarding the return of the cheque as unpaid; and

(c)the drawer of such cheque fails to makes 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.

Explanation :— For the purposes of this section, “debt or other liability”means a legally enforceable debt or other liability.

142.Cognizance of offences —Notwithstanding anything contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974)

(a)no Court shall take cognizance of any offence punishable under Section 138 except upon a complaint, in writing made by the payee or, as the case may be, the holder in due course of the cheque;

(b)such complaint is made within one month of the date on which the cause-of- action arises under clause (c) of the proviso to Section 138:

Provided that the cognizance of a complaint may be taken by the Court after the prescribed period, if the complainant satisfies the Court that he had sufficient cause for not making complaint within such period].

(c)no Court inferior to that of a Metropolitan Magist