JUDGMENT

Suresh Kumar Gupta, J.

On 3.8.2021, this Court has passed the following order:-

"Heard Sri Purnendu Chakravarty, learned counsel for applicants, Sri Vipul Gupta, learned Additional Government Advocate for State and perused the record.

The applicants have filed this petition praying to quash the cognizance order dated 4.3.2020 and the summoning order dated 8.3.2021 as well as the entire proceedings of the case pending before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate 1st, Faizabad in Complaint Case No.3056 of 2019, under Section 406 I.P.C., P.S.Kotwali Nagar, District Ayodhya Faizabad, Pankaj Bisaria v. Vijay Bharadwaj and others.

Sri Purnendu Chakravarty while referring to the summoning order dated 4.3.2020, passed by the courts below submits that the summoning order has been passed in utter disregard to the settled law pertaining to the summoning of accused persons to face trial as there was neither any material nor any evidence available before the trial court which may be termed as sufficient ground for initiation of proceedings against the opposite parties.

It is further submitted that admittedly the applicants are the employees of a company, namely, Avantor Performance Materials India Limited and neither in the complaint nor in the statement of the complainant recorded under Section 200 Cr.P.C. and his witnesses Jitendra Kumar and Mohd. Abrar recorded under Section 202 Cr.P.C., it has been stated that any Post dated cheque was entrusted to the applicants while contrary to this, the averments are to the tune that the post dated cheques were given to the company and, the same could never be deemed to have been entrusted to the applicants and, therefore, in absence of any allegation with regard to the entrustment of cheques, the applicants could not have been summoned to face trial under Section 406 I.P.C.

It is further submitted that under section 139 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, there is presumption that when a cheque has been issued, the same has been issued for a legally enforceable debt or liability and the instant complaint is nothing but has been instituted for the purpose of carving out a defence in the complaint which has been filed by the company of the applicants against the applicants for dishonour of some cheques issued.

While referring to several case laws with regard to the amendment incorporated under Section 202(1) Cr.P.C., it is vehemently submitted that the trial court has failed to follow the procedure provided in that section and, therefore, the whole proceedings including the summoning order has been vitiated. It is also submitted that on the same sets of facts the company of the complainant, namely U.S.Enterprises has filed a civil suit before the Civil Judge (Senior Division), Faizabad and has claimed a relief that the defendant/company, namely, Avantor Performance Materials India Limited, be directed to return the post dated cheques mentioned in the complaint to the plaintiff - firm and due to the own admission of the complainant, the whole dispute between the two companies is of civil nature and, therefore, initiation of criminal proceedings is abuse of the process of law.

It is also submitted that no reason has been assigned by the Magistrate for summoning the applicants and since summoning in a criminal trial is a serious matter and some of the applicants, who are the residents of Delhi, Prayagraj and Tamilnadu, would be under extreme difficulty on the ground that they have been summoned to face trial without sufficient material available against them.

Learned Additional Government Advocate on the other hand submits that since the post dated cheques have not been returned by the company, wherein the applicants are working, they are also liable and no illegality or irregularity has been committed by the court below in summoning the applicants to face trial.

Perusal of the record as well as the order dated 4.3.2020, passed by the trial court would reveal that the complaint case was filed