J.B. Pardiwala, J.

By this application under section 482 of the Cr.P.C., 1973, the applicants-original accused, seek to invoke the inherent powers of this Court praying for quashing of the proceedings of the Criminal Case No.633 of 2017 in the court of the 11th Judicial Magistrate, Rajkot arising from a criminal complaint filed by the respondent No.1-Bank under section 138 of the N.I. Act, 1881 (for short "the Act").

2. The complaint filed by the respondent No.1-Bank is against the partnership firm (accused No.1) and eleven partners. The applicants herein are the original accused Nos.4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11 respectively. The compliant filed by the Bank reads as under;

"1. The complainant Bank is registered and incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, having its Rajkot office at 2nd floor, Opp. Mahatma Gandhi High School, Rajkot. Complainant Bank is in business of providing various loans. The present complaint is filed bu the authorized officer who is authorized to file such complaint.

2. That the accused approached the complainant Bank for the purpose of procurement of finance by the way of Term Loan and at the request of the accused, financial assistance was provided to them under Agreement No. 81034097. At the time of procurement of finance, the accused accepted all the terms and conditions stipulated by the complainant Bank.

3. That, Accused No.1 is borrower of the Term Loan granted, through their partners who are engaged in the day to day activity of the firm, whom are mentioned as accused No.2 to 11. Moreover, Accused No.2 to 11 have also stood as the co-borrower of the financial assistance obtained by them.

4. The accused gave cheque as per following details, duly signed by the accused towards the legal debt which the accused had incurred on account of financial assistance provided to the accused by the complainant. Accused also gave assurance that, said cheque will be honored on presentation.

Cheque No.	Cheque Date	Drawn On	Amount	Reason	Memo Date
18	05/1120 16	HDFC Bank	Rs.373057/-	Insufficient Funds	05/11/16
19			Rs.373057/-		05/11/16
20			Rs.373057/-		05/11/16

5. The complainant presented the said cheque with its Banker for realization and the same was dishonored by the accused's Banker as per above mentioned detail. The said cheque was presented in account maintained at Rajkot and the same was dishonored in Rajkot.

6. Upon receipt of the said memo, the accused was called upon by statutory demand notice dated 29/11/2016 within the prescribed limitation period, to make payment of the aforesaid amount within the stipulated time. The said notice has been served upon accused on or around 03/12/2016 and they have replied the same through their Advocate through email of our Advocate. However, the accused failed to make payment. Hence, the accused has committed offence as prescribed u/s 138 r/w sec. 142 of the NI Act, 1881.

7. The complainant submits that as the complainant maintains their account in the Bank which is within the jurisdiction of this court, therefore Hon'ble Court has the jurisdiction to try the case and punish the accused if he is found guilty under the provisions of the said Act."

3. Mr. Aditya A. Gupta, the learned counsel appearing for the applicants has filed his written submissions. They are noted as under;

"1. The case of the petitioners in a nutshell is that they had retired from the partnership firm before the issuance of the cheque and its presentation. The petitioners are accused No. 4 to 7 and 9 to 11 in the complaint.

2. The relevant list of dates and event along with important pages which may be referred to are as under:

Dates	Particulars
31.12.2014	First Rec