Judgment

This order shall govern disposal of both the petitions, under section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short "the Code') as they raise a common question of law, formulated as under -

"Whether a Magistrate is required to afford opportunity of hearing to the accused before condoning delay in filing complaint relating to dishonour of cheque, under proviso to Clause (b) of section 1 42 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (for brevity the 'Act')"

2. The petitioner is aggrieved by the following orders passed in each one of the cases, registered as Complaint Case Nos. 13364/10 & 13365/10 -

(i) Order dated 2-11-2010 authored by Shri Nitin Kumre, JMFC, Jabalpur whereby cognizance of the offence was taken, while condoning delay of 25 days in filing the complaint.

(ii) Order-dated 15-12-2011 authored by Shri Nisar Ahmad, JMFC, Jabalpur, whereby application moved by the petitioner for reviewing the order-dated 2-11-2010, was rejected as not maintainable.

3. At the outset, it may be observed that the orders passed on 15-12-2011 are to be upheld simply because the offence, under section 138 of the Act, is triable by summon procedure that does not contemplate any stage of discha