O R D E R

The petitioner is the accused in S.T.No.5567/2015 of the Judicial First Class Magistrate's Court-II, Kollam, for the offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act . The case is as a result of a private complaint filed by the 1st respondent herein as complainant.

2. The allegation against the petitioner is that the petitioner had issued Annexure-C cheque for ₹2,36,857/- in the capacity of authorised signatory of a company, named Hotel White Dammar International Private Ltd., which, on presentation, returned dishonoured for insufficiency of funds.

3. The petitioner alone is made accused in Annexure-B complaint. Even though the cheque was signed by the petitioner in the capacity of authorised signatory for the company, the company is not arraigned as an accused in Annexure-B complaint.

4. In Aneeta Hada v. Godfather Travels &

Tours Pvt. Ltd. [ 2012 (5) SCC 661 ], it was held in paragraph 59 by the three- Judge Bench of the Apex Court is :

“In view of our aforesaid analysis, we arrive at the irresistible conclusion that for maintaining the prosecution under Section 141 of the Act, arraigning of a company as an accused is imperative. The other categories of offend