Judgment :-

Smt Ranjana Prakash Desai, J.

1. On 13/10/2006, while granting leave in Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No.211 of 2005, this Court passed the following order:

“In our view, the judgment relied upon by the counsel for the appellant in the case of Saketh India Ltd. & Ors. v. India Securities Ltd. (1999) 3 SCC 1 requires reconsideration. Orders of the Hon’ble the Chief Justice may be obtained for placing this matter before a larger Bench.”

Pursuant to the above order, this appeal is placed before us.

2. Since the referral order states that the judgment of this Court in Saketh India Ltd. & Ors. v. India Securities Ltd. (1999) 3 SCC 1) (“Saketh”) requires reconsideration, we must first refer to the said judgment. In that case, this Court identified the question of law involved in the appeal before it as under:

“Whether the complaint filed under Section 138 of the NI Act is within or beyond time as it was contended that it was not filed within one month from the date on which the cause of action arose under clause (c) of the proviso to Section 138 of the NI Act?”

The same question was reframed in simpler language as under:

“Whether for calculating the period of one month which is p