1. Leave granted.

2. A Judicial Magistrate of first class, after convicting an accused of the offence under S.138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (for short'the N.I. Act') sentenced him to imprisonment for six months and a fine of Rs. 83,000/-. The conviction and sentence were confirmed by the Sessions Judge in appeal and the revision filed by the convicted person was dismissed by the High Court. When the Special Leave Petition was moved, learned Counsel confined his contention to the question whether the Judicial Magistrate of first class could have imposed a sentence of fine beyond Rs. 5,000/- in view of the limitation contained in S.29(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short'the Code'). As the decision of this Court in K. Bhaskaran v. Sankaran Vaidhyan Balan & Ann, 1999 (3) KLT 440 = JT 1999 (7) SC 558 =1999 (7) SCC 510, is in support of the said contention we issued notice to the respondent mentioning that it is limited to the question of sentence. Learned Counsel for the respondent contended that the decision of this Court to the effect that power of the Judicial Magistrate of first class is limited in the matter of imposing a sentence of fine of Rs. 5,000