O R D E R

The petitioner is the accused in ST.No.884/2005 on the file of the Judicial Magistrate of the First Class-II, Thiruvananthapuram. The second respondent herein filed a complaint, copy of which is marked as Annexure-A, against the petitioner alleging offence under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act with a plea that in discharge of an existing liability, the petitioner issued four cheques. When presented, the cheques were returned with the endorsement ‘payment stopped by the drawer’. Though a lawyer notice demanding discharge of liability was caused the liability was not cleared, but a reply was sent.

2. According to the petitioner, there is no liability subsisting between the petitioner and the second respondent and that the cheques in dispute were issued only to compromise certain cases pending between the second respondent and the brother-in-law of the petitioner. Annexure-C is the compromise. Annexure-D is the common judgment in pursuance of Annexure-C. In acknowledgment of the cheques, Annexure-B receipt was also issued. According to the learned counsel, a reading of Annexure-B would show that there was no outstanding liability and hence no offence under Sec.1