IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

Reserved on	Pronounced on
29.04.2024 & 30.04.2024	03.06.2024

CORAM THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE M.DHANDAPANI CRL. A. NOS.473, 481, 482, 485 OF 2024 & 305 OF 2021 AND CRL. O.P. NOS. 9792, 10557, 10628 OF 2024, 25233 OF 2023 CRL M.P. NO. 2904 OF 2024 IN CRL A. SR NO. 7517 OF 2024 CRL. A. NO. 473 OF 2024 M/s. Sree Gokulam Chit & Finance Co. (P) Ltd., rep. By its Vice Chairman, Mr. V.C.Praveen Regional Office at :

Sree Gokulam Towers

100 Feet Road, 7^th Street Gandhipuram, Coimbatore – 12 Corporate Office at :

No.66, Arcot Road, Kodambakkam Chennai 600 024. .. Appellant - Vs -

M. Rajkumar .. Respondent Crl. A. No.473 of 2024 filed under Section 378 of the Code of Criminal Procedure against the judgment in C.C. No.32 of 2017 dated 5.2.2024 passed by the Judicial Magistrate No.I, Fast Track Court, Magisterial Level, Coimbatore.

For Appellant / : Mr. L.Rajasekar in all appeals &

Petitioner Original Petitions For Respondents : Mr. C.Prabakaran in CA

305/2021

COMMON JUDGMENT

Assailing the orders in and by which the complaint initiated by the appellant u/s 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act (for short ‘the Act’) had come to be dismissed, the present appeals are directed against the said judgment.

2. There are two sets of petitions. In the first set, the appeals have been filed after grant of leave by this Court assailing the said orders, while in the second set, criminal original petitions have been filed seeking leave of this Court to file the appeal. Since the issue involved in the appeals as well as the petitions seeking grant of leave for filing the appeals are one and the same, they are taken up together and disposed of by this common judgment.

3. For the sake of clarity/convenience, the appellant in the appeals, who is the petitioner in the grant leave petitions will be referred to as ‘appellant’ and the respondent in the appeals and petitions will be referred to as ‘respondents’.

4. In the appeals, notice had been ordered and in some of the appeals, the respondents have appeared through counsel. However, insofar as the criminal original petitions are concerned, where, leave is sought for, for filing the appeal, as no adverse order is being passed against the respondents therein, notice to the respective respondent in the criminal original petitions are dispensed with.

5. The facts in all the appeals/petitions are one and the same and, therefore, barring the specifics, the brief facts, which are required for appreciation of the issue are stated hereunder.

6. Chits run by the appellant are governed by the Tamil Nadu Chit Funds Act. The respondents in all the appeals/petitions are persons, who had entered into chit transaction with the appellant. The period of chit covered in all the cases is for a tenure of 20 months. It is the case of the appellant that the respondents, who were paying the monthly chit amounts, at various points of time in the chit, had become the successful bidder and they were disbursed the prize money by the appellant. However, after receiving the chit amount, even before the term, on the basis of their successful bid, the respondents failed to honour the commitment to pay the subscription amount every month till the end of the chit term and, thereby, committed default and the respondents are liable to pay various sums of money, as detailed in the respective affidavit filed in support of the appeals/petitions.

7. It is the further case of the appellant that due to the said default committed by the respondents, which were called upon to be paid by the respective respondents, the respective respondents gave cheque for the said amount towards discharge of the defaulted amount, which cheque, on being deposited were returned by the appellant’s bankers for insufficient funds. Upon return of the cheques as dishonoured, the appellant issued legal notice u/s 138 (b) of the Act calling upon the respondents to pay the amount of the cheque, failing which legal action would be taken to r

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