S.N. Aggarwal, J.—This petition under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 filed by the petitioner seeks quashing of complaint Case No. 4668/08 instituted against her by respondent No.1 for offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (“NI Act” for brevity).

2. A legal question that calls for an answer in this .petition is whether the legal heirs of the signatory to the cheque are criminally liable to be proceeded against for offence under Section 138 of NI Act.

3. Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the above legal question are that a complaint under Section 138 of the NI Act was filed by respondent No.1 on accusations against the petitioner that her mother late Shrimati Rajmadanlal had issued a cheque bearing No. 133091 dated 20.12.2007 for an amount of Rs.7,40,000 in consideration of repayment of loan. It was alleged that the said cheque, when presented for encashment by respondent No. 1 in his Bank, was returned unpaid on account of “insufficiency of funds”. Respondent No. 1, being the 2 MCRC 7019/08 complainant, sent a legal notice to the petitioner’s mother late Shrimati Rajmadanlal on 30.1.2008 which was returned with postal end