The court confirmed that a dishonoured cheque can lead to criminal liability under Section 138, provided all statutory requirements, including timely filing of the complaint, are met.

JUDGMENT

T. Amarnath Goud, J. - Heard Mr. P.K. Pal, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner. Also heard Mr. S. Deb, learned senior counsel assisted by Mr. B. Debnath, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 1 and Mr. S. Debnath, learned Additional Public Prosecutor, appearing for the respondent-State.

2. By means of filing this revision petition under Section-401 read with Section-397 and 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 for setting aside the judgment dated 01.03.2021 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, South Tripura, Belonia in Criminal Appeal No. 15 of 2019 upholding the judgment and order dated 18.06.2019 in N.I. 13 of 2016 passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, South Tripura, Belonia awarding sentence to convict petitioner Sri. Rakhal Mallik to suffer S.I. for 1(one) year and pay a fine of Rs. 22,00,000/- in default to suffer SI for 6(six) months.

3. The petitioner before this Court is a defaulter of cheque. The cheque issued by him was dishonoured. The cheque amount is Rs. 11,00,000/- and the Court below has passed the order of conviction with a fine of Rs. 22,00,000/-.

4. In gist, the case of the prosecution as it appears from the copy of the judgment of learned trial Court is that, complainant Sri. Umesh Majumder render service by providing materials, goods, i.e. brick, chips, cement, etc. and labourers to the accused-petitioner for execution of the work of road construction under PMGSY within the jurisdiction of Hrishyamukh R.D. Block and accordingly the accused-petitioner has been liable to pay Rs. 11,00,000/- to the complainant as the cost of said materials, goods and labourers, etc. and in discharge of his said liability accused-petitioner issued a cheque vide No. 623748, dated 15.04.2016 of Rs. 11,00,000/- drawn on the bank account of accused-petitioner vide Account No. 0261010107800 lying in the United Bank of India, Belonia Branch. On 03.06.2016 the complainant presented the said cheque to his banker, i.e. the State Bank of India, Belonia Branch through his account vide Account No. 30791798956 for collection of the aforesaid cheque amount. The SBI, Belonia Branch forwarded the said cheque to UBI, Belonia Branch, i.e., the banker of the accused-petitioner for collection of the said cheque amount, but the UBI, Belonia Branch dishonoured the said cheque for the reason of 'funds insufficient' in the account of accused-petitioner and intimated to the SBI, Belonia Branch and on 13.06.2016 SBI, Belonia Branch returned the said cheque along with Return Memo issued by the UBI, Belonia Branch to the complainant and debited Rs. 460/- from the not pay the cheque amount to him. Thereafter, the complainant had filed the instant case U/S. 138 of Negotiable Instrument Act, 1881. Account of the complainant being the Cheque Return Charge. On 11.07.2016 the complainant issued a statutory Demand Notice to the accused demanding re-payment of cheque amount with 15% up to date interest through Registered Post with A/D within 15 days of the receipt of notice and as per tracking record of the registered letter, that demand notice was delivered to the accused-petitioner on 13.07.2016. But even after received of the statutory demand notice, the accused-petitioner did not pay the cheque amount to him.

5. Thereafter, the complainant filed a complaint petition on 27th August, 2016 before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Belonia, South Tripura against the accused-petitioner. The learned trial Court has taken cognizance of the offence against the a