Can there be a criminal offence involving no moral turpitude at all? Is the offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act one such offence? Is a person accused of an offence, in which moral contumaciousness is not significant, entitled to a more humane and less onerous trial procedure? Should an accused facing indictment under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act be compelled to endure the tedium and trauma of a regular elaborate criminal trial? Is it possible for the system to simplify procedure and achieve the legislative goals without inflicting such unnecessary inconvenience and difficulties on the indictee atleast in such less serious crimes? These questions are thrown up in this case where the petitioner, a woman, laments that she, who faces indictment under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, is entitled to a fairer deal from the system.

2. The petitioner, a woman in her late forties, a housewife who has her husband employed abroad having two children - a son and a daughter studying for the engineering course and the B.A.M.S course, and a permanent resident of Alappuzha has received summons from the Judicial Magistrate of the First