The procedural law governing a special statute, such as the Negotiable Instruments Act, must be strictly followed. Filing belated applications after a Revisional Court's order and misconceptions in invoking specific provisions of the CrPC can lead to violations of the special statute and may not warrant interference under Section 482 of CrPC.

JUDGMENT :

Sharad Kumar Sharma, J.

Before venturing into the legal implications over the controversy, which has been raised in the present C482 Application, some basic facts are necessarily required to be referred to. It couldn't be in controversy that a complaint case, being Complaint Case No. 5113 of 2013, Anil Kumar Nandwani Vs. Ram Ratan & another, for trial under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 stood instituted as back as on 12th March 2013 before the Court of Additional Civil Judge (Junior Division)/Judicial Magistrate, Haldwani, District Nainital.

2. The said matter proceeded and during its pendency, the present applicant had filed an application on 24th January 2018, invoking the provisions contained under Section 311 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for the purposes of summoning the documents, as well as, the accused person, which stood rejected by the Court below, vide its impugned order dated 15th November 2018. Thereafter, rejection of the application, the proceedings attained the stage of Section 313 of CrPC, which was conducted on 14th August 2019, on account of inaction on part of the opposite party to lead his defense, which was closed by the learned trial Court vide its order dated 25th February 2020 and the date was fixed as 29th February 2020 for decision on the aforesaid complaint case for the offences under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act.

3. Against this order dated 25th February 2020 directing the closure of an opportunity to lead evidence, a Revision, being Criminal Revision No. 33 of 2021 Ram Ratan Singh Bisht Vs. State of Uttarakhand and Another; was preferred before the District and Sessions Judge, Nainital. The Revision thus preferred by the present applicant was allowed by the judgment dated 6th April 2021, whereby his closure of opportunity to lead the evidence was set aside and the learned trial Court was directed to fix a date for the purposes of adducing evidence of the revisionist, the relevant part of the revisional Court’s order is extracted hereunder:-

“The said criminal revision is allowed. The impugned order dated 22.02.2020, passed by learned Civil Judge (J.D.)/J.M. Haldwani, District Nainital, in Criminal Case No. 5153 of 2013 titled as Anil Kumar V. Ram Ratan and another, is hereby set-aside. The trial Court is directed to fix a date for the purpose of adducing defence evidence and after that proceed with the case as per law. However, it the revisionist/accused does not adduce defence evidence on the date fixed, the trial Court will be at liberty to proceed further with the case in accordance with law.”

4. It is appropriate to remark at this stage, that the order of rejecting the application under Section 311 of CrPC, by the learned trial Court by an order dated 5th November 2018, has attained finality, as it has not been challenged and hence it cannot be further a dispute, that the proceedings had reached to the stage of Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It is at this belated stage of the complaint proceedings, that the present applicant had filed an application on 1st November 2021, being an application under Section 143 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, to be read with Section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, for recalling of the witness PW1.

5. It would be necessary to extract the relief sought for in the said application, which was two folds:-

(i) PW1 may be recalled for re-examination;

(ii) To produce the entire ledger account till 25th February 2012.

6. It is this application which was filed under Section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to be read with Section 143 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, which has been rejected by the Court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Railways), Haldwani, District Nainital in Criminal Case No. 5113 of 2021, Anil Kumar Vs. Ram Ratan and another, which is under challenge in the present C-482 Application.

7. The procedural law governing the regulation of a proceeding under a special statute